The next federal election campaign is going to be won or lost in south-west and western Sydney,'' says Labor's NSW general secretary, Sam Dastyari.
Man with a mission ... Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare. Photo: Tamara Dean
If so, the prognosis is poor. The death notice for the Gillard government has already been drafted by the voters of western Sydney, where it can expect to lose all six of its marginal seats on present polling, and perhaps some of its safer seats as well.
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Western Sydney, once the pinnacle of Labor support, is now the sump, the lowest collecting point, where Tony Abbott is celebrated and Julia Gillard loathed. And the corruption hearings into former Labor politicians at the Independent Commission Against Corruption will play until election day like the soundtrack to The Godfather.
Voters in western Sydney, already resentful of being taken for granted by Labor, state and federal, for a generation, are angry about a lot of things. They seethe at the unchecked flow of boat people and they begrudge the rising cost of living, both of which are, at least, largely federal responsibilities. But they're also angry at lousy public transport, rotten roads, poor schools, an uncertain economic future and frightening levels of gun crime.
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