Tony Abbott facing 12 per cent swing in Warringah: report
Former prime minister reportedly facing a 12 per cent swing amid whatever-it-takes election strategy.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott is reportedly facing a 12 per cent swing at the federal election amid claims of “diabolically bad” polling in his Sydney seat of Warringah.
Mr Abbott’s campaign team has agreed to spend up to $1 million defending the former PM from independent challenger Zali Steggall, who is being funded by activist group GetUp!
The Australian last month revealed Mr Abbott’s FEC president Roger Corbett and campaign manager Peter O’Hanlon have agreed on a whatever-it-takes strategy to keep Mr Abbott in the seat he has held for 25 years.
Mr Abbott has already raised well over $500,000 for the battle, with more expected to pour in from conservative political organisation Advance Australia.
Nine Newspapers reports Mr Abbott is polling badly in Warringah and could be swept out by a 12 per cent swing against him, though Liberal Party officials are said to be confident of regaining Malcolm Turnbull’s former seat of Wentworth, currently held by independent Dr Kerryn Phelps.
Predictions of an Abbott defeat are not new. Polling during the last election showed the Liberal vote had fallen to the mid-40s in his seat and a recent ReachTEL poll commissioned by GetUp also suggested the 61-year-old likely to be turfed out.
Mr Abbott told The Weekend Australian in a candid interview last week he was “just warming up” for the battle for Warringah and has been out defending his record in the electorate. Against claims he had been in the seat too long, the former prime minister said: “I’ve got at least another good decade in me.”
“If you had nothing more to contribute, if you had run out of ideas, if you are becoming politically senescent, sure, but I think I’m fitter than most 40-year-olds.
“I’ve got as much energy now as I had when I was 36, (and) I know a lot more.”
Thanks to Scott Morrison’s decision to delay calling the election by another week, Mr Abbott also has more time to make the case.
Meanwhile, Clive Palmer has positioned his United Australia Party to back him for a surprise tilt at the Senate and prove his professed intent to return to parliament is serious.
Despite the millions he has poured into promoting the new party, its best shot at getting a candidate up is in the Senate from Mr Palmer’s home state of Queensland, or possibly Tasmania. Its one existing parliamentarian, One Nation Senate defector Brian Burston, will struggle to be returned in NSW.
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