Jordan Doherty
Brimbank councillor Trung Luu has become the first Liberal MP of Vietnamese heritage elected to represent the Western Metropolitan Region in the upper house of state Parliament.
The upper house election results were finalised this week and Mr Luu was elected to represent the Western Metropolitan Region for the Liberal Party, alongside Melton councillor Moira Deeming.
“It is a great privilege to be the first Liberal member of Vietnamese heritage elected as the new Liberal member for the Western Metropolitan Region,” he said.
“I thank my supporters and the Vietnamese community who got behind the campaign to make this happen.
“I understand the weight bestowed upon my shoulders and grasped the honour with both hands, for I valued the sacrifices and hardships newcomers had to go through, as they call Australia home. ”
According to the Victorian Electoral Commission, councillors elected to Parliament will needed to step down from their roles as councillors and a new councillor elected to to their place.
Meanwhile, long-serving Western Metropolitan MP Bernie Finn has not been re-elected.
The former Liberal MP turned Democratic Labour Party leader called for a recount of the results last week, but the VEC declined.
Mr Finn finishing behind Mr Luu by 210 votes to miss out on one of five seats.
Following the VEC’s decision, Mr Finn took to social media to say he “may have to take [the decision not to recount] to a higher authority”.
A VEC spokesperson said while the final margin between Mr Luu and Mr Finn was close, it needed to read in the context of the earlier distributions, which were “not close”, so changes in the result that could occur during a recount would “not overcome the impact of the last distribution of preferences”.
“A recount won’t be required simply because a candidate requests it,” the spokesperson said.
