00:00New South Wales will be front and centre this election because this state has the most battleground
00:09seats. It's also where households have been hit the hardest by the cost of living crisis.
00:14And to cap it off, the electoral landscape here has changed after boundaries were redrawn
00:20and the seat of North Sydney was abolished. The number of seats in the lower house has
00:24dropped by 1 to 150. 46 are in NSW, including 15 on margins of 6% or less. Around two thirds
00:34of those belong to Labor, including Bennelong in Sydney's north west, which has recently
00:39turned notionally liberal due to that boundary revision. It's also now the most marginal
00:45in the state, on a wafer thin 0.04%. On the south coast, the Labor held seat of Gilmore
00:53is also in play, on a minuscule margin of just 0.2%. And while the coalition is under
00:59pressure in the regional seats of Cowper and Kilauea, one of its toughest contests is expected
01:05on Sydney's North Shore, where Liberal frontbencher Paul Fletcher is retiring, leaving Blue Ribbon
01:11Bradfield under threat from an Independent. This race is seen as a test of the Teals.
01:17They maintained the momentum of 2022 when they swept up six usually safe Liberal seats.
01:24But the toughest test this year is for the major parties. They need 76 seats to form
01:31a majority government. Notionally, Labor has 78, the coalition 57. With opinion polls predicting
01:37the possibility of a hung parliament, this election could come down to a single seat
01:43and this state could provide the path to victory or defeat.
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