By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS and PETER DOUGLAS
LA TROBE sitting MP, Jason Wood, who is likely to narrowly win his seat, has dumped on the Coalition’s ‘stupid’ federal election campaign.
Mr Wood was ‘quietly confident’ of victory with an almost 2000-vote lead on the ALP rival Simon Curtis with more than 75 per cent of votes counted on Monday, 11 July.
Postal and pre-poll votes will continue to be counted.
“History tells us that postal votes in country seats go more our way,” he said.
Mr Wood said on 6 July he thought the Coalition should have done more to counter Labor’s Medicare-privatisation “scare campaign”, and run harder on “unions and law-and-order”.
“We ran a positive campaign on the economy, technology, innovation … a scare campaign kills a positive campaign every day,” he said.
“We need to be more focused on families and their concerns, and countering scare campaigns.”
Mr Wood said some of the government’s controversial superannuation changes needed to be changed, as did the way Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s office operated in campaigns.
Mr Wood said the bucket of money for election commitments was controlled centrally in Mr Turnbull’s office, but government ministers should have had more say.
“I was dark that up at the Prime Minister’s office, it was such a closed shop,” he said.
“That’s something the office has to change.”
Mr Wood praised ‘fantastic’ people in the office, who backed his call for a ban on cosmetic testing on animals.
He said there was ‘no leadership talk’ about Mr Turnbull’s position.
He said Mr Turnbull has “my full support” and he just wanted “our government to do well”.
“I’ve known him since 2004,” he said.
“He knows I’ll raise this stupid campaign with him and I’ll be demanding changes.
“I’ve no doubt, knowing him, that when we get back, things will change.
“Things have to change.
“I’ll be saying the same thing to all my colleagues.
“It sadly needs to be made public, otherwise nothing will change.”
