For good or bad, election history awaits Peter Dutton
Jacob Shteyman |
Peter Dutton has evoked Scott Morrison’s 2019 “miracle” victory as he looks to defy the polls and pull off a surprise election win.
The opposition leader said he had faith voters fed up with the Albanese government would turn out for the coalition, despite opinion polls predicting a humbling defeat.
“I think a lot of quiet Australians would come out today to support the coalition and I’m looking forward to the outcome tonight,” he told reporters after casting his ballot in his home electorate of Dickson on Saturday.
In 2019, after securing his against-the-odds victory, Mr Morrison remarked it was the “quiet Australians” who won the election for the coalition.
But Mr Dutton has an even higher mountain to climb.
Back then, the final Newspoll showed Labor on track to win 51.5 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.
The final Newspoll of this election, released on Friday, showed Labor sitting on 52.5 per cent to the coalition’s 47.5 per cent.
At the end of a gruelling campaign, in which he visited 52 electorates, Mr Dutton was supported by wife Kirilly and children Tom, Harry and Bec as he voted at Albany Creek State School in Brisbane’s north.
Every election, Labor talks up its chances in Mr Dutton’s electorate – the most marginal in Queensland – but the assault has rarely seemed so intense.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese toured Dickson on his first stop of the campaign and returned on Friday to thank volunteers in candidate Ali France’s campaign office.
Party leaders tend to receive a boost in their own seats, but the presence of Climate 200-backed independent Ellie Smith could erode Mr Dutton’s primary vote.
If Mr Dutton does lose his seat, he would become the first opposition leader to do so in a federal election.
But he was still feeling confident about his chances of becoming prime minister as he began his election-day blitz over a coffee in Melbourne at the crack of dawn.
“Absolutely, I do,” he said when asked if he believed he could win.
He spent little more than 10 minutes with Liberal candidate for Macnamara Benson Saulo at a cafe in Elsternwick in the city’s inner-south before meeting with Tim Wilson at another cafe a few suburbs over in Brighton.
Victoria will be crucial to his chances of victory, with the coalition aiming to capitalise on the unpopular Labor state government and local concerns over crime and the cost of living.
History would also be made if Mr Dutton wins the election: he would become the first man to unseat a first-term government since Joseph Lyons defeated Labor’s James Scullin almost a century ago.
Mr Dutton hinted he would look to stay on in politics if he lost the election.
“I’m 54. I’m still very young and I’ve just got a burning passion for this country,” he told Nine’s Today Show.
An estimated 10 million people were casting ballots on Saturday, with more than eight million having already voted during the two-week pre-poll period.
AAP
