PM ramps up attacks on Keneally

Turnbull fears loss will cast him out

THEY said it was going to get nasty and that’s what happened today.

Malcolm Turnbull intensified the Liberal offensive in the Sydney seat of Bennelong admitting a Liberal loss in the weekend by-election would cost him his job.

The Prime Minister ramped up attacks on Labor candidate Kristina Keneally for her actions when NSW premier, and accused Labor senator Sam Dastyari of betraying Australia.

Today Mr Turnbull admitted he was in danger of losing his job in the weekend’s Bennelong by-election. He told reporters a Liberal loss in the Sydney seat would put Labor’s Bill Shorten “very close to being prime minister”.

The Coalition barely won the 2016 election with a one-seat advantage in the House of Representatives over Labor and the five members of the crossbench.

“The polls are very tight. It is a tight race,” said Mr Turnbull, visiting the seat with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

“And there is a very high cost in voting Labor in Bennelong because if Labor were to win in Bennelong then Bill Shorten would become very close to becoming Prime Minister.”

Labor candidate and former NSW premier Kristina Keneally is neck-and-neck with Mr Alexander according to opinion polls, and this final week is expected to see both sides intensify campaigns.

Mr Turnbull returned to attacks on Ms Keneally for her ties to jailed former Labor state MPs Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald, and for putting them into her Cabinet. He said Labor’s charge that the government was stirring anti-Chinese feeling through its pursuit of Labor Senator Sam Dastyari was “desperate and absurd”.

“You could not imagine modern Australia without the one million Australians of Chinese ancestry,” he said.

The government is demanding Senator Dastyari resign immediately rather than wait until next year.