Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged Aston voters to “send a message” to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at Saturday’s by-election.
Mr Albanese talked up Labor’s candidate, Mary Doyle, on the last day of campaigning in the outer-Melbourne seat, saying anything less than a “massive majority” for the Liberals in Aston would be a blow.
“The Liberals should retain Aston with a massive majority,” he said from Brisbane on Friday.
“The fact that the Liberal Party are having to spend so much money, and they have massively out-spent Labor in this by-election, in order to hang on to one of their heartland seats says everything about the state of the Liberal Party brand.”
Melbourne barrister and councillor Roshena Campbell is widely expected to win Saturday’s by-election for the Liberal Party, retaining the seat vacated by former minister Alan Tudge.
Mr Tudge held the formerly safely seat by a margin of 2.8 per cent after a massive swing against him at last year’s federal election.
Mr Albanese said history showed by-elections swung against sitting federal Labor governments by 5-6 per cent, and no government had won a by-election off an opposition in more than 100 years.
“Make sure you vote and when you do send a message to the Opposition that they need to do better than Peter Dutton,” he said.
“Because all we see from the Coalition is just saying no to everything.”
Mr Albanese said Mr Dutton was a key factor in the erosion of the Liberal branch – comparing the federal Liberal leader to a Winnie-the-Pooh character.
“Federally, they just sit there and vote no to everything,” he said, noting a number of government wins on legislation during the most recent parliamentary sitting fortnight.
“They are the Eeyores of Australian politics and Peter Dutton is the angry Eeyore – he just sits there ‘woe is me, the sky is falling in’, every time an initiative is put forward.”
Labor’s candidate, Mary Doyle, is a former union organiser and cancer survivor who also contested the 2022 federal election.
Mr Dutton, who campaigned in the seat in Melbourne’s east with Ms Campbell on Friday, said he expected the result to be tight but his party should retain it.
He said the by-election was a chance for voters to send the government a message about high inflation as well as rising interest rates and energy prices.
“Every decision Labor has taken economically over the course of the past 10 months has driven up the cost of living pressures on families and on small businesses,” Mr Dutton said.
“There’s an opportunity here to send a message to Labor, that it’s just not good enough because living pressures continue to go up.”
Ms Campbell is hoping her experience as a barrister and Melbourne City councillor will position her to win the seat.
“They (Labor) have shown they are happy to take the outer east for granted,” she said.
Mr Albanese said Ms Doyle – who had lived in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs for more than three decades – would be a strong voice in government if elected.
Meanwhile, the Australian Electoral Commission is concerned about a possible low voter turnout, given the lower than expected interest in early voting.
Experts are worried Aston voters have “election fatigue”, having been to the polls in May and November for federal and state elections.
Other candidates for the seat are project manager Angelica Di Camillo (Greens), software engineer Owen Miller (Fusion) and libertarian advocate Maya Tesa (independent).
-with AAP
