Liberals take early lead in Higgins

The Liberals have taken an early lead as the count begins in the by-election for
Higgins, former treasurer Peter Costello's Melbourne seat.
Liberal candidate Kelly O'Dwyer has polled 48.19 per cent of the primary vote with
200 votes, against 38.67 per cent (153 votes) from her closest contender, Dr Clive
Hamilton of the Greens.
At 7.01pm (AEDT) just one polling booth out of 36 had been counted, or .49 per cent
of ballots.
But Greens candidate Dr Clive Hamilton hopes at least to take the Liberals to
preferences for the first time in the seat's 60-year history.
The Liberals have a 7 per cent margin.
Mr Costello, who retired from the seat he has held for the past two decades, joined
Ms O'Dwyer on the hustings on Saturday, declaring the by-election a tight contest.
He described Dr Hamilton, a Canberra academic, as a "blow-in from the ACT" and a
Labor candidate by proxy.
"We would have preferred the Labor Party to run. The Labor Party wouldn't fight
Higgins, so we know that they're using Clive Hamilton as their front candidate ...
he's the Labor candidate in this election," Mr Costello told reporters.
"At the end of the night when you hear the Greens say how much they increased their
vote just remember this, their vote is the Labor vote in this election, and Labor is
locking behind Clive Hamilton in this by-election."
Ms O'Dwyer, a lawyer and former chief of staff to Mr Costello, has tried to deflect
attention from the Liberals' spectacular ructions in Canberra by talking up local
issues.
But that doesn't wash with Dr Hamilton.
"The events of the last week or two weeks have conspired to turn this into a real
contest," he told reporters in Malvern East.
"There has been a shift in the mood of the electorate.
"The in-fighting over the ETS (emissions trading scheme) has been closely associated
with the collapse in the leadership of the Liberal Party and we now see a party
which is dominated by climate sceptics, those who don't believe there is any climate
change and want no action."
The Greens have declared Higgins a climate change by-election, while the Liberals
are focusing on issues closer to home.
"When people cast their ballot today they're going to be thinking about who is going
to best represent them, who is going to best represent their local issues and their
local concerns, big or small," Ms O'Dwyer told reporters after she cast her vote at
South Yarra Library in Toorak.
"I'm not a blow-in from Canberra. I'm not somebody who has focused on a single issue."
More than 88,000 people are enrolled to vote in Higgins, which encompasses the
affluent inner southeast suburbs of Toorak, South Yarra and Prahran.