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LIBERAL Party members in Bendigo believe Malcolm Turnbull’s rise to power will give the party a fair chance of claiming the seat from Labor MP Lisa Chesters.
The party achieved a strong 8.2 per cent swing for its candidate Greg Bickley at the 2013 election, closing the gap to just 1.3 per cent.
Poor national polling since the election meant victory next year was unlikely, but leaders of the Bendigo, Golden Square and Castlemaine branches see the leadership change as a positive.
President of the Golden Square branch of the Liberal Party, Jack Lyons, said Labor could no longer assume it would win the seat.
“It will now be an uphill battle for Labor to win Bendigo,” he said.
“It’s the most marginal seat in Victoria, so once our candidate is up and running I expect we’ll have a great shot at winning.
“This leadership change is a positive for Bendigo. I think it will improve our chances.”
The federal election is expected to be just over one year away, and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has stated there are no plans to hold it any earlier.
If Labor holds Bendigo next year, the city will have had 20 years of Labor dominance at both state and federal levels.
Bendigo Liberal Party branch president Greg Bickley said it would be interesting to see whether Turnbull makes changes to the cabinet.
“I’m interested to see what sort of messaging comes out, what he promotes,” he said.
“Malcolm Turnbull is more in the middle of the road, he’s something of a progressive, which some in the party don’t like, but he does have a lot of supporters.”
The branch hoped to have a candidate finalised in the coming months to allow for a 12-month campaign.
Mr Bickley, who also ran in last year’s state election, blamed federal issues for the party’s loss in Bendigo’s two seats, and in Victoria more broadly.
He said not everyone in the party would be happy about the leadership change.
“It’s just one of those things, leadership is never certain any more,” Mr Bickley said.
“Of course there’s always going to be a lot of unhappy people. There’s never 100 per cent happiness in the camp when this happens.”