Scott Morrison has made a bee-line to western Sydney after pulling the trigger on a May 18 federal election.
While the importance of Queensland and Victoria in deciding the poll's outcome has rightly been documented, both camps clearly still see value in the traditional battleground in Sydney's suburbs.
Both leaders jetted into western Sydney on Thursday after the prime minister fired the starter's gun on a five-week campaign.
After channelling his political mentor John Howard, Mr Morrison's first campaign stop was in the former Liberal prime minister's heartland.
The Penrith-based seat of Lindsay was famed for being the home of "Howard's Battlers" who swept the coalition to power in 1996 and kept them there for 11 years.
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Labor's Emma Husar won the seat from the government in 2016 with a 1.1 per cent margin, but she's not recontesting after a scandal involving treatment of staff.
Melissa McIntosh will try to prise it back for the Liberal Party, while Labor are running former NSW state minister Diane Beamer.
Macquarie, on western Sydney's outer fringe, is also expected to receive attention from the prime minister.
The seat is held by Labor MP Susan Templeman with a margin of 2.2 per cent, giving the Liberals' Sarah Richards an outside chance of an upset.
Closer to Sydney's CBD, the Liberal-held seats of Banks and Reid also shape as important contests.
Immigration Minister David Coleman holds Banks with a 1.4 per cent buffer, while sitting MP Craig Laundy's retirement could make Reid a tough proposition despite the Liberals' 4.7 per cent grip on it.
