Labor's western front: not a disaster but still a big loss Troy Bramston on the new front lines of a war Labor is losing: Recognising that its hopes of victory are fading, [Labor] has all but written off holding the seat of Lindsay and is now deploying a targeted ground war aimed at stemming losses... Labor is desperately defending its western Sydney stronghold, including Daryl Melham in Banks (1.4 per cent), John Murphy in Reid (2.7 per cent), Julie Owens (Parramatta, 4.4 per cent) and Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, 6.7 per cent). It is also concerned about the airport seat of Kingsford Smith (5.2 per cent) and is watching neighbouring Barton (6.9 per cent), where MPs are retiring. The YouTube fame of Liberal candidate Jaymes Diaz - who could not explain in a television interview the Coalition's asylum-seeker policy - means Labor may hold Michelle Rowland's western Sydney seat of Greenway (0.9 per cent). A weekend poll showed it ahead there. The party has not ruled out snatching the lower Blue Mountains seat of Macquarie (1.3 per cent) from the Liberals, but Labor has little hope of winning Bennelong (3.1 per cent), despite recruiting star candidate Jason Yat-Sen Li... While on a defensive footing, Labor has not shifted resources back into seats its polling showed were at risk under Julia Gillard: Ed Husic's Chifley (12.3 per cent), Jason Clare's Blaxland (12.2 per cent), Tony Burke's Watson (9.1 per cent), Chris Bowen's McMahon (7.8 per cent) and Chris Hayes's Fowler (8.8 per cent) ... The southern NSW electorate of Eden-Monaro (4.2 per cent), a bellwether seat since 1972, could remain in Labor's column despite a loss of government. On the central coast, the outlook for Deborah O'Neill in Robertson (1 per cent) and former Labor MP Craig Thomson's seat of Dobell (5.1 per cent) is complicated by high-profile independents. Summing up: Labor expects its losses in NSW to be less than it feared under Gillard and perhaps not as many as some recent polls suggest, but still far too many for victory - especially with Queensland now unlikely to produce many, or any, Labor gains.