Back to the drawing board for the Liberals in Tangney, Labor preselection jockeying in Queensland, and a confirmed date for proposed new federal boundaries for Western Australia. The week after the federal budget was as always a big one for federal opinion polling, which means it will be followed by a trough next week. • Mark Wales, the preselected Liberal candidate for the crucial Perth seat of Tangney, has stood aside due to a health issue within his family. • The Australian’s Feeding the Chooks column reports that state Ipswich MP Jennifer Howard has withdrawn her preselection challenge against Shayne Neumann in the federal seat of Blair. Anthony Albanese threw his weight behind Neumann amid concern over the security of Labor’s hold on a seat Neumann has held since 2007, and which he retained by a 5.2% margin in 2022.
