For the Liberals to have a hope on Saturday, they need to reclaim Bennelong, John Howard’s old stomping ground now held by Labor on a wafer-thin margin.

So it is far from ideal for the blue team that the party’s candidate, Scott Yung, has spent much of the election campaign trying to outrun the dreaded “embattled” tag.

Several reports in this masthead have outlined Yung’s questionable campaign finance issues during his 2019 state election run, and his ties to a Chinese Communist Party-linked casino high roller. He also copped heat for handing out Easter eggs to primary school students while campaigning, an election sweetener gone awry.

Yung has been relatively evasive when confronted with questions from this masthead, even fleeing his own campaign launch at Ryde-Eastwood RSL. But he found a softer landing across the mic from his former boss Mark Bouris , founder of mortgage lender Yellow Brick Road, who is carving out a niche as Australia’s Aldi-brand Joe Rogan thanks to his lengthy podcast interviews with various politicians.