Radio host Ray Hadley has delivered a brutal warning to Dominic Perrottet after demoralising by-election results he described as a vote against the NSW Premier.
Mr Hadley pointedly warned the Premier that if he wanted to win the next state election, he needed to start listening to voters.
“What he’s got to do is illustrate to the electorate that he is pliable … that if necessary he will change,” Mr Hadley said on 2GB on Wednesday.
“You need to start worrying Dominic. Don’t be overconfident.”
The seat of Willoughby, recently vacated by Gladys Berejiklian, remains in doubt for the state government following a major swing to independent candidate Larissa Penn.
Ms Penn said the by-election was fought on local issues and the tight race reflected that.
“They are not just votes lost due to the exiting former Premier and not necessarily a reaction to what is happening at a federal level,” she said.
“The people of Willoughby are sending a clear message to the NSW Premier that they want true representation, they will not be overlooked, and they want to see change.”
It’s possible there could be an upset in the previously safe seat, but the Liberal Party is expected to hold on.
Even still, it has major implications for the upcoming federal election.
As an independent candidate, Ms Penn ran a short campaign without much financial backing.
And the seat takes up roughly half of the federal seat of North Sydney, where there is an independent running against Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman.
If an independent without many resources can run a tight race against the Liberals, it raises the question of how independents with higher profiles and more financial backing will do.
It is also a major xjmtzywshock for Dominic Perrottet and the state government.
As of Wednesday morning Ms Penn was just three percentage points behind the Liberal candidate Tim James in the contest to take over Ms Berejiklian‘s old seat.
The two-party preferred preliminary result of 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent will alarm the Premier, who is already in minority in state parliament's lower house and is likely to lose the seat of Bega to the Labor Party.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean is confident the Liberals will eventually “get over the line” in Willoughby.
Mr Kean stressed that postal votes, which form a large portion of the remaining ballots, usually favour his party.
“We’re not going to count our chickens yet. We’ll go through the process,” he said.
The state government is also expected to lose another previously safe seat, Bega, after holding it for more than three decades.
Liberal candidate Fiona Kotvojs is significantly behind Labor’s Michael Holland with about half the votes counted.
Bega was held by a margin of 6.9 per cent.
