NATIONALS MP Anne Webster has secured a third consecutive term as the Federal Member for Mallee on what became a bad night for her Coalition colleagues.
As of midday yesterday she had more than 48,100 primary votes, and was not required to go to preferences, as she had secured 50.76 per cent of the vote overall.
She won the first preference count in 98 of 104 polling places and came second in the six she didn’t win, behind The Greens in Halls Gap, and behind Labor in Maryborough, Talbot, Stawell West, Maryborough East and in a Special Hospital Team vote.
Her lowest vote percentage (25.58 per cent) of first preference votes was in Maryborough, her highest (72.58 per cent) was in Dingee in the far east of the electorate.
As Labor swept to victory within three hours of polls closing on Saturday, Dr Webster reflected on entering a second straight term in Opposition.
“I’m not jumping for joy as we enter a new Labor term, but the principles that the Nationals have brought to this campaign are ones we will be sticking to, and we will continue to work towards them,” she said.
“As far as I see it my campaign started three years ago, my team and I have worked really hard to do the best we can by everyone in the Mallee and we’ll be putting that much effort and more into this next term.
“The Mallee have been largely ignored for three years and I am still absolutely committed to see that Mallee gets not only its fair share, but that our regional communities are respected and invested in by the government.”
Dr Webster said she believed there would be quite a bit of instability that she, and the Coalition as a whole, will have to manage and progress.
“A stable Government is not easy to achieve if you don’t have a strong government and a strong Opposition, and I will be watching the Crossbench over the next couple of days,” she said.
“People have said to me that our side of politics should have presented our policies earlier, I think there will be a lot of review going forward, and needfully so.
“One of the devastating things in not winning an election as a party is that the things we committed to during the election we can’t deliver, but I would still challenge Labor to match those commitments because they matter.”
A total of 6.21 per cent of the votes in Mallee were not counted, as they were informal votes.
Across the river in Farrer, Liberal Party deputy-leader Sussan Ley has fended off a challenge from independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe.
Preferences are still being calculated, but as of midday on Monday, Ms Ley had collected 43.6 per cent of first preferences, compared to 20.48 per cent by Ms Milthorpe and 15.02 per cent by Labor candidate Glen Hyde.
Across the country the Labor Party and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recorded a strong victory and were on track to extend their control of the House of Representatives to as many as 82 seats.
At the same time the Liberal-National Coalition were on track to lose up to 20 seats, and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton endured a personal and political defeat, losing the seat of Dickson to Labor candidate Ali France.
Ms Ley has been touted as one of the senior candidates to take over leadership of the Liberal Party.
On the night of the election, Ms Ley spoke to the media.
“It was a tough fight in Farrer, I’m very humbled that I have retained the seat of Farrer and I wanted to very much express my thanks tonight, which I have, to the many volunteers across my electorate … all the way to the South Australian border who turned out for me and of course for the people who voted for me,” Ms Ley said.
“It was an election where across the country the vote for the Liberal Party declined and I’ve lost good colleagues as a result from the Federal Parliament and my seat was not immune from that decline in support.”
Of the 94 polling places for the Farrer electorate, Ms Ley topped the first preference count in 87 of them, coming second to Ms Milthorpe in Albury, Albury Central, Albury East, Albury North, Albury West, Hume and Jindera.
The highest proportion of votes Ms Ley received was by a remote mobile team (75 per cent), and the lowest was in Hume (26.27 per cent).
A total of 8.22 per cent of the votes in Farrer were not counted, as they were informal votes.
Mr Albanese was visibly emotional when he fronted party faithful.
“My fellow Australians, serving as your Prime Minister is the greatest honour of my life,” he said.
“And it is with a deep sense of humility and a profound sense of responsibility, that the first thing that I do tonight, is to say thank you to the people of Australia, for the chance to continue to serve the best nation on earth.”
