Albo under pressure: Why Labor leader Anthony Albanese is under the gun as critical seat goes to the polls
- Voters head head to the polls in the closely contested Eden-Monaro by-election
- Labor’s Kristy McBain is the slight favourite to take out the swing seat
- But if the opposition candidate losses it could see Albanese under pressure
Anthony Albanese’s leadership will be put to the test on Saturday as voters head to the polls in the Eden-Monaro by-election during a once-in-a-hundred year pandemic.
The marginal federal seat is on a knife edge but after the government’s bungled response to the summer bushfire crisis on the New South Wales’ South Coast, Labor’s Kristy McBain is the slight favorite to beat Liberal Fiona Kotvojs.
Labor Party’s Mike Kelly won the electorate in 2016 but stepped down in April 2020 due to health concerns.
If the opposition relinquish the seat, given the seething anger still lingering in the bushfire ravaged community, it could spell trouble for Mr Albanese’s leadership.
Test of leadership: Labor leader Anthony Albanese is hoping to quell questions about his popularity with a win in the critical seat of Eden Monaro
The race between Labor’s Kirsty McBain (on left) and Liberal Fiona Kotvojs (right) is expected to be close
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack believes the Eden-Monaro by-election is a ‘close-call’, saying the result probably won’t be known at the end of the day.
‘It will be a close call. I’m not quite sure whether the actual result will be known tonight,’ Mr McCormack told reporters at a polling booth in Tumut.
Both major parties are already rehearsing their excuses should they lose a vote that has been fought against the backdrop of drought, bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Albanese said the government had ‘complacency at its heart’ and thought it could ‘drift through this byelection’.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was heckled out of town by angry Cobargo residents in January.
In the clear low point of his prime ministership, Scott Morrison was heckled out of town in Cobargo, in Eden Monaro, during the bushfire crisis in January
Most voters have snoozed through the by-election campaign but a fish tank filled with green algae in a photo posted by ALP candidate Kirsty McBain did catch fire online
Members of the community hurled insults and refused to shake hands with Mr Morrison in front of TV news cameras.
The group claimed they were ‘forgotten’ by the Liberal Party Government and weren’t receiving enough disaster support after losing homes.
Mr Albanese said the by-election is about those people who don’t have ‘power’ or a ‘voice’ in Eden Monaro.
‘This is about the beef farmers that we’ve met who haven’t had support, the chook farmers who are struggling … This is about people continuing to suffer from mental health issues six months after the fires,’ he said.
‘This is an opportunity for the people who haven’t been heard, to speak up through the ballot box and say this government needs to do better.’
Polls close at 6pm sharp.