Federal election campaign heatmap shows Coalition and Labor leaders visiting battleground seats

Updated

Eastern Melbourne, northern Tasmania and western Sydney are emerging as three regions the Coalition and Labor expects will determine the federal election.

The ABC Politics team has been monitoring, as best we can, exactly where Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek travel.

Here's what we've learned from the first week on the campaign.

Coalition

Mr Morrison started the campaign in western Sydney, sandbagging the seat of Reid, which outgoing Liberal incumbent Craig Laundy holds with a 4.7 per cent margin.

His efforts here were overshadowed by an awkward exchange with a resident, in which his "ni hao" Chinese greeting was met with an "I'm Korean" response.

The Coalition needs to pick up seats if its to form a majority government, which is why the Prime Minister managed two visits over two days to the 1.1 per cent Labor-held Lindsay, where incumbent Emma Husar is also not seeking re-election.

A drubbing at the Victorian state election last year is clearly cause for concern among the Liberal Party, as are redistributions in that state that will make holding at least two seats a whole lot harder.

Eastern Melbourne and the coastal seat of Corangamite are all set to receive a lot of Liberal attention in the coming weeks.

Mr McCormack spent the start of his week in his own electorate, before taking his efforts to the north coast seat of Cowper, which party insiders expect to lose, and Dawson, which is under increasing threat as an expenses saga engulfs incumbent George Christensen.

He spent the end of the week travelling with Mr Morrison in northern Tasmania, where the Coalition is targeting three of the state's five seats.

The focus in particular appears to be on Braddon, which Labor holds by 1.7 per cent.

Sources have told the ABC the party will have to pick up at least one of these if its to be re-elected.

Labor

Labor has brought a national focus to its first week, squeezing in trips to each of the states and the Northern Territory.

Mr Shorten appears keen to exploit the Victorian state results, kicking off his campaign with his first event in the eastern Melbourne seat of Deakin, held by conservative Liberal Michael Sukkar by 6.4 per cent.

The party clearly wants Reid, with three visits between Mr Shorten and Ms Plibersek. That combined with Mr Morrison's visit made it the most visited seat among the major party leaders.

Also on its list is Liberal minister Ken Wyatt's WA seat of Hasluck, 2.1 per cent, which Mr Shorten visited twice during his mid-week trip to the west.

Getting across the country included a visit to the Liberal seat of Boothby, which first-term MP Nicolle Flint holds with a 2.7 per cent margin.

Here, like in Deakin, the party wanted to exploit the incumbent's support for Peter Dutton in last year's Liberal leadership change.

Labor, however, had to find time for his own sandbagging effort, with the leaders visiting Lingiari, 8.2 per cent, Bass, 5.4 per cent, and Cowan, 0.7 per cent.

Notes

We haven't included press conferences and events in Commonwealth offices around the country, and Parliament House in Canberra.

Where multiple candidates are present with the political leader, the electorate where the event is being held or where the issues being discussed are of most importance is listed as the location.

Credits

Topics: government-and-politics, federal-elections, alp, liberals, nationals, australia

First posted