Prime Minister John Howard has shrugged off strong results for Labor in two NSW state seats within his federal electorate, saying they would have no bearing on his bid for re-election.
A Morgan poll indicated Mr Howard would have lost his federal seat of Bennelong to high-profile Labor candidate Maxine McKew if an election had been held in February.
His tenuous hold on the electorate was made to look even shakier when the seats of Ryde and Parramatta were comfortably won by Labor in yesterday's NSW election.
But, while Ryde and Parramatta make up significant chunks of Bennelong, the seats of Epping and Lane Cove were easily won by the Liberal Party.
Other fringe seats, Baulkham Hills and Castle Hill, also were held by the Liberals.
Mr Howard said if the results from Ryde in the 2003 state election were translated into Bennelong at the federal poll the following year, he would have lost.
"If I was to put the Ryde figures of 2003 into Bennelong 2004, I don't think I'd be talking to you now. That's been the case for a long time,'' he told reporters today.
"I always have to work hard in Bennelong. I treat Bennelong as it is, and that is a marginal seat. I do not take it for granted.
"I try and actively service in a personal way the people of Bennelong and I'll keep on doing that and I hope I win.
"I don't take anything for granted, when you've got a margin of four per cent you can't afford to."
In the 2004 federal election, Howard clung to the north-western Sydney seat by a narrow four per cent margin after the vote went to preferences.
A redistribution last year taking in suburbs further to the west will make the seat even tougher for Mr Howard, who has held Bennelong since 1974.
The Morgan poll in February found Mr Howard would have lost the seat had an election been held at the time, with 55 per cent of the 400 voters polled supporting Labor on a two-party preferred basis.