Bernard Keane at Crikey has a good wrap.
It’s hard to overstate how much the Liberals had going for them in Dunkley. Historically a Liberal seat, in a cost of living crisis, a candidate with name recognition as a local mayor, the absence of right-wing parties like One Nation and Clive Palmer’s United Australia, top spot on the ballot paper, far-right billionaire-funded attack machine Advance publishing xenophobic ads, no change of government riding on the results. How could it go wrong?
Victorian Liberal Senator Jane Hume told her News Corp handlers there was “white hot anger” in the electorate. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton even felt relaxed enough, according to the Financial Review, to put in a sneaky trip to Perth to bend the knee to mining heiress Gina (do we need a ™ for that?) Rinehart on Thursday.
