McClelland may force by-election on Gillard I wasn't the only person to suspect this was one reason the Prime Minister set an election date so far into the future: Labor holds the southern Sydney seat by 6.9 per cent but internal polling has the party worried they could lose it. While the minority government would still have the numbers in parliament to retain power, the loss would cause a "psychological injury" - as one Labor MP described it. The real injury which would worry Gillard would be to her leadership.