Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Parties push hard in marginal Australian electorates

Updated at 3:28 pm on 18 August 2010

Australia's major parties have stepped up their efforts in some marginal electorates in the last week of campaigning.

The result in seats such as Sydney's Bennelong will determine whether Labor or the Coalition will form the Government after Saturday's election.

Bennelong is the seat in which Labor MP Maxine McKew defeated former Coalition Prime Minister John Howard in 2007.

But the Liberal Party needs just a small swing for its candidate, former tennis player John Alexander, to win back the seat.

Labor is desperate to hang on to a seat which could be crucial to it staying in government.

Former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd campaigned in Bennelong last weekend and Prime Minister Julia Gillard has promised the electorate a new $2.6 billion railway service.

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