Spotted this afternoon on the main street of Queanbeyan, the federal Liberals out campaigning hard on behalf of their embattled leader, Malcolm Turnbull. The big man himself wasn’t present but they had gone to some effort to try and attract the interest of the locals with large size colour banners featuring Turnbull.
When asked what brought them out here at least 12 months prior to the next federal election, they were quite coy, claiming this was “standard community outreach” and nothing more. They became even more hesitant to answer questions once I postured to them that a pending double dissolution election surely made more sense seeing them out and about like this than just merely ramping up for an October/November poll in 2010.
It seems someone in the local branch is worried about their potential performance in Eden-Monaro though, i’m 99% sure this is the first time i’ve seen any major parties campaigning in Queanbeyan since the 07 election, if you don’t count the 2-4 times a year Turnbull or Rudd come and visit a technical college here for a quick photo-op policy announcement, that’s not the same as street campaigning though.
What do you think? Is this a sign we could be going to the polls as early as February/March or even sooner for a double dissolution election? With the nationals refusing to compromise on the ETS (emissions trading scheme) and Turnbull having staked his leadership on doing a deal on the ETS, has someone finally decided that its all over red rover for the Libs as a result? Only time will tell at this point I guess……
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