On the trail
The election campaign has kicked off, and the first stops Anthony Albanese made weren't in battleground seats but in Coalition territory and safe Labor ground.
For months, polls have suggested Labor would spend the election campaign desperately sandbagging marginal electorates, attempting to cling to the prospect of minority government by stemming the bleeding in Melbourne and Sydney.
Instead, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spent the first two full days of campaigning in two seats he’s almost certain to win — and, whatever he says publicly, two he is almost certain to lose barring major upsets.
Beginning the campaign in Peter Dutton’s Brisbane seat of Dickson — at an urgent care clinic, no less — wasn’t about seat-by-seat polling. Nor was travelling to the Nationals stronghold of Bundaberg, or visiting the heartland of all Labor heartlands, Canberra.
Three years ago, the first day of Albanese’s campaign was dominated by his inability to name the cash rate, a stumble Labor sources still lament as having cost the party a much bigger election victory.
