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Tough road for Turnbull

By Kerry-Anne Walsh and Matthew Benns
May 30, 2004

It was always optimistic of Malcolm Turnbull to think he could sashay quietly into government through the blue-ribbon seat of Wentworth.

The successful campaign he waged last year to oust his Liberal colleague Peter King was bold, brave and brassy.

Money chattered all over the well-heeled eastern suburbs seat as flashy fund-raisers were held and Turnbull's high-society mates rolled up their Marcs' sleeves to help him.

It also involved - as one seasoned Liberal Party operative put it - the mother of all branch stacks.

The quiet, incumbent King, who reckoned when he won the seat in 2001 that he was set for life, was hit with a tornado-like force of ambition, money, celebrities and the sheer force of Turnbull's driving ambition.

But the exclusive Sun-Herald Taverner poll, which revealed a mixture of distaste for Turnbull, dislike for the Government and disenchantment with the internal party biff, points to the high-profile merchant banker having the mother of all challenges to keep the seat in Liberal hands.

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While the poll tolls ominously for Turnbull personally, it also rings loud warnings for the Government.

As the poll pinpoints, the Government is on the nose. Badly.

More and more voters are questioning Australia's role in Iraq.

The spend-up in the budget aimed at buying the votes of middle Australia has flopped.

Combine that, in a seat like Wentworth, with a candidate who people don't seem to like and whose political tactics they mistrust, and it spells danger.