Labor has retained its stronghold on Melbourne’s western suburbs, with voters across Brimbank putting their incumbent MPs back into office.
Despite the outcome of the 2016 federal election still hanging on a knife’s edge, Calwell’s Maria Vamvakinou, Gorton’s Brendan O’Connor, Lalor’s Joanne Ryan, Gellibrand’s Tim Watts and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong) have all retained their seats.
Ms Vamvakinou and Mr O’Connor had strong leads in two-party preferred figures over their rival Liberal candidates John Hsu and Daryl Lang respectively, with about 70 per cent of the vote each. Mr O’Connor witnessed a swing of more than 11 per cent in his favour.
MP for Gorton @BOConnorMP increases his margin on electorate and says result is “great” for Labor t.co/Bwep3lafAI
— ABC News (@abcnews) July 2, 2016
Mr Shorten saw a more marginal swing in his way of almost three per cent. In Lalor, Greens candidate Daniel Sova captured almost 10 per cent of the vote. But the incumbent, Ms Ryan comfortably secured the majority with about 52 per cent of votes and a 7.6 per cent swing in her favour. More than one in five Gellibrand residents voted for Greens candidate Jonathon Marsden. But sitting member Tim Watts managed to secure almost 50 per cent of first-preference votes. Ms Vamvakinou will enter her sixth term after Saturday’s resounding result.
#BREAKING: #9News predicts @AustralianLabor’s @MariaVamvakinou to hold the seat of Calwell. #AusVotes pic.twitter.com/lrdd56Yxkx — Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) July 2, 2016
The Calwell MP started her day in Sydenham and then made her way around 30 polling places, describing the mood on the day as “subdued”.
She said she was pleased to be re-elected, but anxious about the overall outcome.
“This is one of those deja-vu moments,” she said. “I’ve always felt the election cycle was too short. Given the changing nature of politics, it might be a good idea to revisit this.”
When Star Weekly went to print on Monday, an analysis by Fairfax Media at the time put the result of the count as 71 Coalition seats, 65 for Labor, five independents, one Green and eight seats in which the count was too close to call.
The winning party needs 76 seats in the House of Representatives to form government.
The final lower house seat count is not expected to be decided until the week’s end.
