As we move toward the 2022 federal election, there are some critical federal seats in New South Wales that are raising eyebrows. Their competitive nature and historical significance ever makes them especially fascinating. Robertson, Gilmore and the collective Western Sydney region are key battleground seats. These issues are among the most galvanizing and would largely determine a favorable or unfavorable outcome in the election.
First elected in 2016, Gordon Reid narrowly won the seat for Labor at last elections in 2020. Now, he is facing a difficult re-election challenge from former Liberal MP Lucy Wicks. Wicks is a former member for the federal seat of Robertson from 2013 to 2022. This Central Coast seat is very much a bellwether electorate. Since 1983, the winning party here has gone on to form the government in every contested federal election. The recent boundary redraw further increased the competition in Robertson. This move was necessitated by the abolition of adjacent/connected North Sydney electorate.
In a closely related contest, Labor’s sitting MP Jerome Laxale is fighting to hold his seat against challenge by Liberal candidate Scott Yung. The political dynamics in this one seat illustrate just how high the political stakes are. Each party is hell bent on gaining the high ground in this characteristically battleground-prone area.
Gilmore remains one of the only bright spots for Labor from the 2019 election. This truly democratic nature is what makes it a crucial battleground for both major parties on the South Coast. In the 2022 federal election, Fiona Phillips won her seat by a whisker against former Liberal state minister Andrew Constance. She won with only 373 votes, a reflection of the intense campaign for this swing seat. Gilmore, Labor’s most marginal seat, is once again the focus of a bitter contest. Former finance executive and independent candidate Nicolette Boele is taking on the new Liberal candidate, Gisele Kapterian. In 2022, Boele raised eyebrows by toppling retiring Liberal MP Paul Fletcher. He transformed a seat that had been considered secure into an unexpectedly competitive race.
East coast New South Wales has 46 federal seats. Approximately one-third of these are considered marginal, which translates to the potential for seismic shifts in party representation. Western Sydney has been the star of this campaign, in which these 14 seats are considered vital, with 10 of these 14 seats held by Labor. The political terrain in this part of the country is moving very fast. With election day fast approaching, these changes have the potential to be gamechangers in swaying public opinion.
