Oliver Peterson: Australian correspondent on Anthony Albanese underperforming in the weekend by-election

Victorian voters in the outer-western suburban state seat of Werribee have voiced their feedback in this weekend's by-election - and they're not too happy with Labor's output.

Labor had held the state seat of Werribee since 1973, but this time, both major parties received less than 30 percent of the first-preference vote. 

Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson says this paints a concerning picture for Labor ahead of the upcoming federal election - as Albanese could lose seats in Victoria.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oliver Peterson is our six pm Perth Live presenter, our
Australia correspondent, Oliver good Afternoon, Get a Ryan. Hey, this
has been bad news for Elbow at the by election.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah it has. And look it is a state's parliamentary
issue for Victoria. But there are some huge red flags
now for the Prime Minister because all of a sudden
a seat which was actually held by the Greens has
flipped to the Liberal Party. It's very very close in
the former Treasurer of Victoria's in Palace's seat still between
the Liberal Party and the Labor Party at the moment.

(00:32):
And once the analysis has been done on this, if
you look at the primary vote now for the Labor Party,
it's slipped to just twenty seven percent. Ryan. So if
those results are going to be replicated when we go
to a federal election, all of a sudden, Anthony Albaneze
could be losing somewhere between ten and twenty seats in
Victoria and the government obviously switches to Peter Dutton and

(00:53):
the Liberal Party in the coalition. So look, this is
a bad result for the Labor brand. Victoria have obviously
got a mountain of problems at the moment, debt is
stacking up at an incredible rate. They canceled the Commonwealth Games,
they're on the nose with Victorians. But the Prime Minister
will be very worried about these results and very worried
about a number of polls coming from a different from

(01:15):
a whole heap of different agencies at the moment, which
paint a very very bad picture for the labor brand
in Victoria. He'll be just hoping that next week when
the Reserve Bank of Australia meets, we are going to
get an interest rate cut. That he's probably the only
thing that he's going to save him between holding on
to power in a minority government and losing office altogether.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
It's interesting, is that because you start to look and
sound like a loser. I mean when you get numbers
like this, you look at the press conferences with Albinizi
and he's starting to sound like he's going to lose. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
And the thing is he also when he comes over
here to Perth where I am, he likes to remind
us I've been there twenty eight times. Well, great, you're
the Prime Minister of Australia, mate, you shouldn't be telling
us how often we are lucky enough to have you here.
When you are here, you just get on with the job.
And you're right that loser talk is really creeping in.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
The ASX took a bit of a hit this afternoon.
This is after Trump makes his announcement off the cauff
On Air Force one about the tariffs on steel and aluminium.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh yeah, it Phil as soon as we open this morning.
We fell zero point six percent as of half past
ten this morning Eastern Standard time. The other update, though,
is now the Prime Minister has just told the Federal
Parliament he has a call scheduled with Donald Trump regarding
these tariffs. But obviously Australia has a great trading relationship

(02:32):
with the United States. A lot of steel is exported
to the United States, so to put a twenty five
percent tariff on that, I think he's something which has
caught our Prime minister in our whole country obviously by surprise.
You say he made those comments off the cuff, But
there is now a phone call scheduled sometime between Albow
and Trump, you'd say, in the next twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Interesting, we'll keep in breast to that one. And Brian
Adams Perth Show has been called off. What's the problem here.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, it's an yesh one t show? Can I put
it that way? Ryan? Because last night everybody turned up
to the arena at five point thirty. Obviously people who
particularly wanted to get right down the front and had
general admission they would to see Brian Adams. The doors
stayed locked at five point thirty and that what's going on.
Get a text message to say it's going to be
a bit delayed on the doors by half an hour.
Get another text message at that half hour is up

(03:21):
indicating the sewer was blocked and they are worried that
everything might come back up the toilets in the arena.
So now this is an issue that's been caused by
the state's water authority, called the Water Corporation, as a
result of the blockage in the area. But in the
end the Department of Health had to step in and
say you just simply can't open up the arena in

(03:41):
case everything comes back up the toilets. So the Brian
Adams show has canceled last night. It's not going to
be rescheduled. Everybody's getting their money back. But there were
thousands and thousands of people in the middle of the
Perth CBD. Yes, we do have thousands of people that
live here. Ryan, by the way, who could not go
to the show, were very angry last night, spilling out
onto the street, all because you couldn't flash the toilets

(04:02):
and if you did, you didn't know if it was
going to come back up.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
That's them, I would think a great time does that? Hey,
they may not have got Brian Adams, but they got
Alberanzi twenty eight times. Are we lucky?

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Right?

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Thank you guys. Oliver Peterson, six pr PERS Live presenter,
our Australia correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio