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- Dunkley byelection: Labor’s Jodie Belyea triumphs but Liberals win modest swing
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Victorian Liberal senator Jane Hume, who is the shadow finance minister, told Sky News that despite the loss in the byelection, it was “the best primary vote that we’ve seen in about a decade in Dunkley”. Hume said:
This is a very positive result for us. Now, I want to make sure that we don’t overcook it here, there’s work to be done, but at this stage in this electoral cycle that we can take this as a very positive sign.
I’ll be honest with you – the only people who have been talking about that tweet are either journalists or Labor staffers. I didn’t hear anybody talking about it on the booths yesterday.
I guess I hesitate to draw too many conclusions out of a byelection, but we did see the Greens vote go down, One Nation and Palmer weren’t in the field [this time] and that contributed to the Libs’ primary vote going up.
But the big issue for all Aussies, whether they’re in Dunkley or right around the country, is the cost of living. That’s what’s on everybody’s mind, whether they’re paying bills at the supermarket or paying down their mortgage. The tax cuts will help with that, inflation going down will help with that, wages going up will help with that.
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