Chris Bowen – one of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s senior ministers – is in grave danger of losing his seat at the May 3 federal election.
A new poll indicates the Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is in trouble in what had always been considered a safe Labor seat of McMahon in western Sydney.
His top challenger is independent candidate and IT millionaire Matt Camenzuli.
McMahon has always been held by Labor, where Mr Bowen has been the local federal MP for more than two decades.
He received almost 48 per cent of the primary vote at the 2022 election and 59.5 per cent after preference distribution, but a new poll has him on less than half that.
The Compass poll conducted last weekend shows Mr Bowen on just 19 per cent, far behind Mr Camenzuli, who was polling at 41 per cent.
Even more astonishing is that Mr Bowen in not only trailing the wealthy businessman, he’s also behind the Liberal candidate Carmen Lazar who polled at 20 per cent.
If that polling plays out on election day, Ms Lazar’s preferences – which would likely heavily flow toward the independent – would see Mr Camenzuli win comfortably.
Despite being a Labor stronghold, McMahon is home to a multicultural population where many constituents hold conservative social views.
One of Anthony Albanese’s ministers is in grave danger of being voted out by their own constituents on May 3.
Federal minister Chris Bowen (pictured on Monday) remains confident that he will retain his seat, despite a new poll revealing otherwise
Constiuents rejected both the Indigenous Voice to Parliament in 2023 and also rejected the same-sex marriage plebiscite 2017.
Labor and Mr Bowen backed both same-sex marriage and the Voice to Parliament.
Mr Bowen’s portfolio of Climate Change and Energy has also diminished his popularity in a battler electorate where soaring energy prices hit hard.
Such rebuttals of Labor’s more fashionable policies across the struggling mortgage belt has led the Liberal Party to target western Sydney seats as a potential path to power.
Making matters even more complicated for Labor in McMahon is that Ms Lazar is a former Labor councillor who fell out with Mr Bowen when he backed another candidate for the state seat of Fairfield at the 2023 election.
Mr Bowen is confident he will retain his seat, reminding The Australian that Mr Camenzuli is a former a Liberal Party member while Ms Lazar is a former Labor member turned Liberal.
‘I’m the only one with consistency,’ he said.
The Compass survey also found that grocery prices were the biggest concern in western Sydney at 85 per cent, followed by power bills at 72 per cent.
Health (61 per cent), fuel (54 per cent) and housing (50 per cent) were the next highest priorities, it found.
Climate concerns rated at just 26 per cent and LBGTQ issues were the lowest ranking concerns in the poll.
The top challenger to Labor in the western Sydney seat of McMahon is tech millionaire Matt Camenzuli (pictured)
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who campaigned in the McMahon electorate on Wednesday, was asked if his policy of cutting migration could stop the Liberals from making gains in western Sydney, which has a huge migrant community.
He replied that Ms Lazar’s family, who are Assyrian, showed how migrants were an asset to Australia.
‘I’ve said repeatedly that we are a great beneficiary of the migration program in our country,’ he said.
‘Look at Carmen’s family story, look at many other candidates that we have running at this election, people who have worked hard.
Mr Bowen is also trailing the Liberal candidate Carmen Lazar (pictured), according to a new poll
‘People … have come here since the Second World War period, people who have started with nothing, amassed a fortune, or people who have come here as builders and bricklayers and tilers and the rest of it.
‘We are a net beneficiary of that, but the concentration, at the moment, is on how can our migration program work best for us?
Mr Camenzuli, whose website says he is ‘sick of politicians’ has been busy campaigning on cost of living issues.
‘I spend a lot of time in the electorate and you see people putting food back from their trolleys and buying smaller bags of food because there’s just not enough money to feed the kids,’ he said at his campaign launch.
