Former deputy Premier John Watkins looks years younger since he left the bear pit of NSW state politics. Now the head of Alzheimer’s Australia, he MCed a fundraiser for Maxine McKew’s Bennelong campaign last Friday night, welcoming “those who love Maxine and those who are less fondly disposed towards Tony Abbott”.

“Some of us may be here because we saw her interview B1 and B2, Bob and Blanche, our own Mark Antony and Cleopatra and we know that love is in the air, everywhere you look around.”

Watkins, the former state member for Ryde, the heart of the electorate, said that “Maxine is a woman of the greatest loyalty”.

“Any of us who saw her dignified support for Kevin Rudd knows that this is a woman who will never go missing.”

We need her to beat (former tennis star) John Alexander, he said.

“She lives among us. He doesn’t. She moved here. He didn’t. She cares about us. Love for her is not a tennis score.

“She wants to win because she values her community. He wants to win because he says Bennelong belongs to the Liberal Party.  She believes she should earn it. He thinks the Liberals deserve it.

“She travels around Australia to meet communities because she is invited by people who love her — he does it because he’s paid by Channel Seven to talk about tennis.”

Alexander may have “a better forehand” but Maxine “has better foresight,” he said.

“She knows what her community wants; where it is going. Her vision for Australia encompasses more than winning the Davis Cup.”

McKew, in foxy red suede pumps and a black dress, thanked her supporters, reminded them of what they had achieved last time, and asked them to “dig deep” into their energy reserves to do it again this time.

By 6.45 this morning McKew was in her door-knocking flats, handing out pamphlets at Meadowbank Station. In freezing cold, she darted around the crowd, offering leaflets, talking about the election.

In this industrial suburb, a working-class area on the western edge of the electorate, the local member encounters the usual questions, about health, education, the economy. What she doesn’t hear is any complaints about immigration — many of these faces look South-East Asian and Indian.

Bennelong is one of the most ethnically diverse electorates in the country. According to the 2006 Census, 42% of its residents speak a language other than English at home, twice the national average.  In addition, 59% of it’s residents were either born overseas or have parents who were born overseas; compared with a national average of 41%.

That may be why the issue of border protection is not getting much of a run here, and why the coalition has sent out the more liberal Joe Hockey to help out Alexander, rather than hard-man Abbott.

Last Friday morning Hockey and Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells held a press conference at Carlingford Court shopping centre, where Hockey was asked what made Alexander a “a true-blue Liberal”.

“He’s a fair dinkum person. He’s very straight. He’s tall and good-looking …”

Alexander jumped in quickly.

“I won’t make promises I won’t keep,” he said, but he wasn’t allowed to hold the floor for too long, before Hockey leapt back in.

“That’s right, he won’t make promises he won’t keep, that’s the fundamental issue. John is someone who’s worked hard all his life to achieve great things. He is not only a terrific Australian, he’s an immensely successful Australian. He is someone who has runs on the board. He is a straight shooter.”

Earlier this year,  Alexander was interviewed by Monica Attard on the Sunday Profile radio show, and was asked about his upbringing.

“Our family was a very strong Liberal Party supporter, in that dad was a small businessman, mum was a school teacher. We had that opportunity to develop the business, to earn good wages and that ultimate Australian dream of owning your own home. But we were that living example of that Menzies era that saw home ownership go from under 40% to over 70% and have that opportunity to succeed and that, you know, genuine belief that Commonwealth actually meant something. And so, I guess, we just … saw the Australian dream as that Menzies era and as the Liberal government had created this opportunity for so many people, not just for us but for people who’d come to our country after the Second World War and from devastated situations to share in that opportunity of actually having a stake in Australia, which is something they may never have had somewhere else.”

This places Alexander firmly within Menzies “forgotten class — those people who are constantly in danger of being ground between the upper and nether millstones of the false class war; the middle class who represent the backbone of this country”. Former PM John Howard, the previous member for Bennelong, has referred to Menzies’ “forgotten people” in the past; these appeals to nation and family would have resonated strongly with  many people in the electorate, which has always been very aspirational.

Asked if he thinks he can win, Alexander said on the program that he had been in “a lot of competitions and the sure recipe for a failure is to be confident. You’ve got to really just concentrate on doing your best every single day. If you get distracted or get thoughts that you’re going to win or anything that takes you from the actual task, it’s a recipe for disaster. We have great opposition. It’s a very, very tough road to hoe.”

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Balmain residents are ecstatic about the end of MasterChef, hoping this means we get our suburb back. Ever since local patissier Adriano Zumbo appeared on the show, we have been under siege by thousands of outsiders, who take over the village on the weekends, some arriving in mini-buses! By the time the cake shop opened at 9am yesterday, the queue — filmed by several TV networks —  was down the block, and stayed that way until they ran out of food at 2pm.

Exhausted staffers said that they had served about 300 people, many of whom announced they were having a MasterChef party.

People, please, the show has finished and we want to be left in peace.  Residents are now implementing border protection policies and turning back the Audis. Make your own macaroons.