Anthony Albanese is taking nothing for granted as Greens mount a challenge in his seat of Grayndler, the inner-Sydney seat held by him over the past 20 years, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
His Greens party rival is Jim Casey, 46, a forthright firefighter with an honours degree in arts who has taken leave from his job as head of the NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union to fight the campaign.
Grayndler will not only determine the fate of Mr Albanese, a potential future Labor leadership contender who was Bill Shorten's only challenger when the party ran its last leadership contest after the 2013 election.
Meanwhile, Labor's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek is also facing an uphill battle against the Greens’ candidate in her seat of Sydney.
Ms Plibersek said the upwards trajectory of the Greens might not last in her keynote speech to the McKell Institute in Sydney on Wednesday.
"We've seen parties like the Democrats come and go ... I don't think you can say this is a determined long-term trend," she said.
It epitomises the more general existential challenge to Labor in gentrifying inner-city areas, where the knowledge elites are moving into one-time working-class neighbourhoods, doing up the terrace houses and replacing outhouses with designer courtyards.
And where the knowledge elites congregate, the Greens vote is following.
