One of the campaign's more incendiary moments almost passed by with a nod and a few chuckles.
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The Marconi Club, an Italian-Australian hub in the western Sydney seat of Fowler, enthusiastically greeted the prospect of Australia's first non-Anglo prime minister on Wednesday night.
Italian-Australians were telling him they'd vote Labor for the first time to reflect a diverse Australia, Labor leader Anthony Albanese has claimed during this campaign.
There had now been a Premier Palaszczuk, a premier Bracks of Lebanese descent, he said last week. Just months after former premier Berejiklian departed the stage, a Premier Malinauskas stepped onto it.
But surrounded by friendly faces on Wednesday night, Albanese went further, seemingly accusing the Coalition of racism - an apparent reference to ads claiming 'It won't be easy under Albanese'.
"Those people of my age and older in this room will know that at school people made fun of your name," he said.
"My opponents think it's still OK to make fun of someone's name in their advertising ... I know that many in the Italian-Australian community have made their own judgments about what that says about them."
It's the first time the Labor leader has made that accusation.
There would be an Albanese and a Wong leading the upper and lower houses if Labor wins on Saturday, he noted.
"We still have a bit to go," he said.
Nodding heads greeted that concession.
But Fowler, the scene of a factional compromise at the expense of a local representing a minority community, was a risky place to make it.
The night's MC, Kristina Keneally, was parachuted in to avoid an ugly standoff with fellow Labor right senator Deb O'Neill.
The causality: local Vietnamese-Australian lawyer Tu Le, who has repeatedly expressed her disappointment that Australia's parliament does not represent its people.
Keneally's home, on Scotland Island in Sydney's rich northern beaches, has been substituted for a rental in the electorate.
Asked twice if she will move back to the island if she loses, Keneally did not answer directly.
"My husband and I live in Liverpool," was all she would say.
Her political career is now on the line, but there are obvious reasons Labor would have her skip the queue.
Keneally is a former NSW premier, considered a talented media performer, and is too valuable to lose over a factional standoff.
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Likewise Andrew Charlton, whose adopted electorate of Parramatta is nearly an hour drive from his $16 million home in Sydney's east.
But as Albanese bats away accusations of economic inexperience, Charlton, a former economic advisor to Kevin Rudd, seems certain to be fast-tracked into an assistant ministry with a view to something bigger.
Some think bulldozing the local branch to make that happen made brutal, realpolitik sense.
But it's risky, too.
Equality is not equality if it's ditched the moment party strategists are inconvenienced. Voters know it.
Women and people of colour are disproportionately offered seats they're unlikely to win, another structural impediment to Australia's parliament representing its people.
Outgoing Fowler MP Chris Hayes wanted a local to replace him and recommended Tu Le as his replacement.
Keneally insisted he'd been "supportive" since she was pre-selected.
But NewsCorp polling suggests Keneally's lead has been slashed, the race for Fowler now much tighter. Her independent opponent is making serious inroads claiming the northern beaches fly-in "sticks out like a sore thumb" in western Sydney.
By polling day, Albanese boasts he will have hit 20 marginal electorates in every state and territory within a week.
Most are offensive visits, hitting electorates he is seeking to turn red.
But his bid to become Australia's first non-Anglo leader hinges just as much on keeping seats like Fowler and Parramatta in his column.