One looks like she’s seen a ghost, Peter Dutton is grimacing – and the other grins maniacally: Why this viral photo sums up the absolute trainwreck of the Coalition’s election campaign

It’s a picture that paints a thousands words – and will no doubt spawn as many memes.

Amelia Hamer, the Liberal Party’s great Millennial hope of snatching a seat back from the Teals, looks as if she’s just seen a ghost, as perma-tanned Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume stands next to her, grinning maniacally. 

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton appears as if he has taken a sharp intake of breath, as he, too, glances out of shot with a similar, thousand-yard stare forming across his face.

The photograph was captured on Wednesday evening on a Liberal Party visit to the Tower Hotel in the seat of Kooyong in Melbourne’s inner-east, currently held by Teal MP Monique Ryan.

It should have been an occasion for laughter given the Liberals were very much among friends.

The anti-Teal publican Joe Rumoro allowed the party to unveil a 10-metre billboard on his pub which read: ‘Monique Ryan votes: 77 per cent with Greens’. 

And when a battalion of Teal supporters swarmed his pub in protest and the council ordered him to take the sign down, Mr Rumororo hit back by selling anti-Monique Ryan stubby holders, which Ms Hamer and Senator Hume are holding in the now iconic picture. 

But everything about the disjointed photograph, which was taken by AAP’s James Brickwood and has subsequently gone viral online, seems to sum up the Coalition’s faltering election campaign.

The photograph was captured on Wednesday evening on a Liberal Party visit to the Tower Hotel in the seat of Kooyong in Melbourne ‘s inner-east, currently held by Teal MP Monique Ryan. Everything about the disjointed picture seems to sum up the Coalition’s faltering election campaign

It should have been an occasion for laughter given the Liberals were among friends. The anti-Teal publican Joe Rumoro allowed the party to unveil a 10-metre billboard on his pub which read: ‘Monique Ryan votes: 77 per cent with Greens’ (pictured: the swarm of teal protesters outside the pub)

A promising candidate, whose campaign focussed on renters was derailed by revelations she owns a property portfolio and is the beneficiary of a $20million family trust; a senior Coalition frontbencher out of step and reduced to a sideline role after a major policy bungle; and, finally, a leader who is wondering where his lead has gone.

Peter Van Onselen, Daily Mail Australia’s Political Editor, said ‘it looks like one of those campaign stops that neither the candidate nor the leader wanted to be at’.

‘As Jane Hume is the only one smiling, perhaps she’d have been better off working from home that day,’ he added, in a sardonic reference to the Coalition’s biggest backflip of the campaign.

When Peter Dutton fronted the media on April 6 to admit that he had ‘made a mistake’ and was now ditching the Coalition’s plan to restrict WFH arrangements for public servants, many within the party blamed Senator Hume.

The shadow finance spokeswoman had been a key architect of the policy that backfired spectacularly with voters, particularly women, who value flexible working arrangements.

Of course, other pictures from the night show Ms Hamer, Senator Hume and Mr Dutton laughing along with the Opposition Leader’s wife, Kirilly.

But sadly that’s not how political imagery works. 

‘If the Liberal vote falters the same way their campaign has then this will become the iconic photo that encapsulates everything that went wrong,’ Van Onselen added. 

Other pictures from the night show Ms Hamer, Senator Hume and Mr Dutton laughing along with his wife, Kirilly. But sadly that’s not how political imagery works

The recriminations already seem to be starting in the Liberal camp.

And, with them, the inevitable talk of a post-election power struggle. 

On Friday morning, Senator Hume was asked on ABC News Breakfast whether she could see Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor as a future leader of the party.

She insisted it was ‘too early’ to be having such discussions, before employing perhaps the most colourful metaphor of the campaign. 

‘You do not read the entrails until you have gutted the chicken,’ she said. 

Well, if the polls are to be trusted, it certainly seems like a flock of chickens are coming home to roost for the Coalition.

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk