Albo's Australia
Anthony Albanese's emphatic victory has entrenched Labor as the natural party of government and relegated the Liberals to being a party that doesn't represent metropolitan voters.
A senior Liberal MP recently confided to me: “We look too much like Queensland, and not enough like Sydney and Melbourne.”
It’s a tension that has plagued the party since Queensland delivered Scott Morrison his “miracle” 2019 victory. With its party room dominated by MPs from the nation’s most decentralised state, how could the Liberals arrest their slide in metropolitan Sydney and Melbourne?
With the loss at least five seats in Queensland in yesterday's election — including Peter Dutton’s own seat of Dickson — it’s clear voters in Brisbane, Cairns and beyond also now view the Liberals as a party that doesn't represent them.
In metropolitan Melbourne, which was supposed to be key to Dutton’s path to the Lodge, Jason Wood may be the sole remaining Liberal MP.
