Barbecues were flaming and the snags sizzling outside schools, community halls and churches across Wentworth, as voters streamed into polling booths to decide whether the Morrison government would survive on its own terms beyond the weekend.

In play, of course, is the government’s 76th seat, which until two months ago was on a seemingly unassailable margin and among the safest Liberal seats in the country.

Liberal Candidate Dave Sharma, campaigning at Waverley Public School. Credit:James Brickwood

Voters wrapped in beach towels and clad in active wear streamed into the polling booth at Bondi Beach Public School, past the typically irrepressible gauntlet of volunteers wielding how-to-vote cards. The future member for Wentworth and the runner-up converged simultaneously on the beachside booth at midday, as Bananas in Pajamas in knock-off costumes danced nearby spruiking their “Save the ABC” message.

Liberal candidate Dave Sharma and Dr Kerryn Phelps – the bookies’ favourite to end the Liberals’ 70-year hold on the seat – shook hands and exchanged well-wishes in an obligatory performative dance before the flashing bulbs of the news cameras. Dr Phelps declared there was “momentum for change”, but she will need to pull off an historic swing to demolish the 17.7 buffer left by Malcolm Turnbull.