Liberal candidate for the marginal seat of McEwen Chris Jermyn has had a weekend to forget. While most voters in the suburban Melbourne seat would never have heard of Rob Mitchell’s challenger before Saturday, they definitely do now, after Jermyn failed to articulate just what his party’s Medicare policy is. Jermyn showed up to a Bill Shorten press conference at a Sunbury health centre, but when asked about his own party’s Medicare plans he had this to say:

“Look clearly my position is that of the federal government. The government’s policy is very clear. Nonetheless I think we’ve got the leader arriving now, so I’d like to have a listen to what he’s got to say.”

Labor holds McEwen by just .2%, but we think there’s a tiny sigh of relief there now. Jermyn’s history with the Young Liberals has now come to light, with his attendance at a 2005 conference at which students chanted “we’re racist, we’re sexist, we’re homophobic”. Jermyn also served as the mature-age representative at the University of Melbourne’s Student Union in 2013. His first act in a meeting in July was to second a motion from a fellow Young Liberal that the student union congratulate the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of Prince George. The motion was lost. And this morning Scott Morrison told Ray Hadley there were “no dills” in the Liberal Party.