The 2.3 per cent margin in Lyons puts it among the most marginal regional seats in the country, and with heavy Liberal Party losses expected in metropolitan areas, winning the seat is key for the government.
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Jessica Whelan was announced as the Liberal’s candidate last month, giving her a short campaign of about four months.
But she believes the seat is winnable – and feedback in rural areas had been positive during her initial travels across the vast electorate.
“There hasn’t really been, from a federal perspective, huge issues raised other than the fact that the communities would like to see the continuation of funding to those rural areas,” Ms Whelan said.
“Going by the feedback I’ve been given, we have a lot of support in those rural areas.
“I’m working my way throughout the north, getting really positive feedback.”
The electorate stretches from Sheffield in the north-west, across to Evandale, up to St Helens and down to Sorrell, New Norfolk and Brighton.
As a councillor with Brighton Council, Ms Whelan is confident she has the connections to break the traditional Labor stronghold in the seat’s south.
“I have a huge amount of contacts throughout Brighton. I was recently elected as a councillor for Brighton Council, and I’m positive that I can engage better with the people throughout southern Lyons: Sorrell, Bridgewater, Gagebrook, New Norfolk areas,” she said.
“I’m not concerned about the short campaign period at all. I’ll be able to cover everything we need to.”
The seat switched major parties in 2013 and 2016, most recently when Labor’s Brian Mitchell won it from Liberal Eric Hutchinson.
Labor also held the seat under Dick Adams from 1993 to 2013.
Ms Whelan was working with the state government for much of that time – under successive Labor governments – when she became engaged with politics.
“I worked for the government under the Labor Party, so Paul Lennon, Lara Giddings, David Bartlett,” she said.
“It was probably during those years that I really started to focus on politics.
“For me, the change we saw in Tasmania as a whole state when the Hodgman Liberal government took over was a clear example of why I want to represent our state and I want to represent it as a Liberal.”
Ms Whelan was among the Liberal Party candidates to visit Launceston on Saturday during Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s stop in the city.