Joe Hildebrand: Labor out to harpoon Sturt, their great white whale

Labor’s great white whale has always been tantalisingly in reach, but never more than right now. Will this be the year they finally land their prized catch, asks Joe Hildebrand. SEE THE NEW VIDEO

The seat of Sturt in South Australia is Labor’s great white whale.

“We’ve been winning Sturt for about 35 years,” one veteran campaign strategist laughed when I asked about the party’s chances this time around.

Needless to say Labor has not won Sturt in the past 35 years, nor since 1972 for that matter.

And yet it always remains tantalisingly within reach, and never more so than at this election.

It is held by the Liberal Party by just 0.5 per cent after Labor shaved 6.5 per cent off the margin in 2022, it is the only Adelaide seat currently held by the Libs, and it is the only seat that Labor has a chance of winning off the Coalition.

Anthony Albanese catches up with Juliet Lockwood and George, a five-year-old Newfoundland, while on the campaign trail in South Australia. Picture: Jason Edwards

In terms of targets they don’t get any bigger or more attractive than that.

But just because something’s big doesn’t mean it’s easy to catch — just ask Captain Ahab.

Still, a good captain never gives up and so Anthony Albanese was back in Sturt today with SA Premier Peter Malinauskas and a bucketful of dreams.

Indeed, the PM even dropped a few election sweeteners by shouting a round of coffees — which was nice but wholly unnecessary given that every Australian can now afford to buy a coffee of their own thanks to his latest tax cut.

And who knows what might happen, with the Greens and a teal also contesting the seat that was once the throne of dripping-wet moderate kingmaker Christopher Pyne — Peter Dutton’s ultimate political nemesis.

When wealthy and WASPy inner-suburbanites suddenly decide they have a conscience anything is possible!

So will Sturt once more be the one that got away? Probably, but that’s not really the point.

Just by showing up the PM is taking the fight to the Liberal Party and reminding them that even though Labor is set to take a haircut at this election, it could still jag a surprise steal from the opposition on the way through.

And every dollar the Coalition has to spend defending its marginal seats is one less dollar they have to spend trying to knock over Labor’s.

And with the government resurgent in the polls Coalition HQ will be wondering if it needs to start worrying about maybe sandbagging other seats too.

Hence the PM’s Sturt psych — he just wants Petter Dutton to enter a world of Pyne.

Originally published as Joe Hildebrand: Labor out to harpoon Sturt, their great white whale