I dunno, I grew up in Ballarat and went to Uni in Bendigo, and I think the latter definitely skews further right. Ballarat is the home of Australian democracy, and folks are really proud of that fact. It’s always refreshing going home because people fly the Eureka flag without being racist cunts.

Catherine King is also just very popular locally. She makes sure to be quite responsive through her electoral office.

Anyway, all this is to say that if the Nationals tried a similar run on Ballarat they would have failed spectacularly. There was a 2.5% swing to Paula Doran (Lib) in Ballarat, but King held it still with a 10.5% margin.