Unhappy Gilmore
Appearing in a seat that should have already been in the bag strengthens claims that Peter Dutton’s campaign is floundering.
Peter Dutton's decision to visit the NSW south coast seat of Gilmore just four sleeps from polling day is a sign that his campaign isn't going quite as planned.
The opposition leader plans to travel to 28 seats in the final week before election day, insisting he can defy public polling to win government. The Coalition is still the odds-on favourite to win Gilmore, Australia’s most marginal electorate after the 2022 election, but it should have been in the bag months ago.
While visiting the electorate on Tuesday, a protest by anti-nuclear protestors scuppered Dutton’s plans to hold a press conference alongside the Liberals’ high-profile candidate, former NSW state minister Andrew Constance, who narrowly missed out on winning last time around.
Constance's previous stance on climate change defies the Liberal Party's shift to the right under Dutton. As a senior minister in Gladys Berejiklian’s government, he regularly implored his federal colleagues to go further in addressing the issue after the 2020 Black Summer bushfires ripped through his state seat. Constance even said then-prime minister Scott Morrison “got the welcome he deserved” when he was heckled by locals in the fire-ravaged village of Cobargo.
