ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja has embarked on an urgent election campaign fundraising push in the wake of polls showing him in the fight for his political life against a range of climate friendly challengers at the May election, in particular independent candidate David Pocock.
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Ahead of Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling the election, two new voter intention polls by Labor leaning pollsters Redbridge group, commissioned by climate-focused fundraising group Climate 200, show Senator Seselja at 25 and 24 per cent of the primary vote, well short of the required 33.3 per cent seat quota.
The polls, one of 707 respondents conducted by telephone interviews (CATI) and the other a "robocall" survey of 1331 people on March 24 and March 22 respectively, show preferences will play a big part in the final result.
Senator Seselja has not contested the polling, which shows the Greens candidate Tjanara Goreng Goreng at 14 and 15 per cent in a slightly stronger primary vote position than Mr Pocock, but indicates the former Wallabies captain, at 11 and 13 per cent, could be in a winning position if he received strong preference flows from Labor's Katy Gallagher and fellow independent Kim Rubenstein.
READ MORE:
- New polls show ACT Liberal Senator Seselja in the fight for his political life
- Climate 200, David Pocock flood Facebook and Instagram as ACT senate race heats up
- Climate 200 uses doctored post to attack Zed Seselja
- 'What has he been doing?' David Pocock takes on Zed Seselja in a bid to change political history
The Liberal senator referenced the polling as he sought new support in an email to Liberal members on Wednesday.
"You may have seen the poll on the front page of The Canberra Times today that shows the Liberal Senate seat is at risk this election," he wrote.
"There's no sugar coating it - this will be the toughest election in a generation in the ACT.
"But you and I know, now is not the time to be handing over more power to the Labor-Green-Green Independent Alliance."
He described Dr Goreng Goreng, Mr Pocock and Professor Rubenstein as "all nothing more than different shades of Green, with Pocock at the Extinction Rebellion end of the spectrum."
Climate 200 is backing a national field of independents including both Mr Pocock and Professor Rubenstein and Senator Seselja told the Liberal members that Climate200 are "going hard" and are "throwing" tens of thousands of dollars at the campaigns.
"So please invest today to build the $75,000 federal election campaign fund to empower a strong voice to stand against the radical agenda of the Labor-Greens-Green Independent alliance," he asked, linking to a Liberal party fundraising page.
Senator Seselja has repeatedly cited Mr Pocock's arrest eight years ago near a NSW coal mine, including being "locked on" to a mining super digger, as evidence of his radical nature, but the independent candidate remains proud of his past environmental actions.
Mr Pocock is shown in the polling to take a significant bite into the votes of all candidates and is seen to be capturing traditional Seselja supporters.
For example, he is more popular with male voters at 12 per cent of the primary vote and people who earn more than $120,000 at 19 per cent of the vote.
The polling shows Senator Gallagher comfortably reaching the quota with 37 and 35 per cent of the vote, but the poll results are still down from her 2019 result of 39.3 per cent.
But the polls show a bigger dent in the vote for Senator Seselja who received 33.3 per cent of the vote in 2013, 33.1 per cent in 2016 and dipped below quota to 32.4 per cent in 2019.
Professor Rubenstein is shown with a primary vote of 7 and 6 per cent while the Clive Palmer UAP candidate James Savoulidis is at 2 percent on the CATI poll and 7 per cent on the robocall poll.
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