NATIONALS MP Anne Webster has secured a third consecutive term as the Federal Member for Mallee on what’s become a bad night for her Coalition colleagues.
As of 10pm on Saturday, Ms Webster had more than 19,000 primary votes, and was sitting just 0.5 per cent shy of needing to go to preferences.
With the Labor Party on track for a sweeping election victory and Anthony Albanese to continue as Prime Minister, Ms Webster will stay within the Opposition ranks.
“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.”
Ahead of the next term, Ms 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.”
Across the river in Farrer, Liberal Party’s deputy-leader Susan Ley looks to have fended off a challenge from independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe, despite a more than nine per cent swing away from the incumbent.
As of 10pm on Saturday, Ms Ley had recorded more than 31,000 primary votes, or more than 44 per cent of the total available, but counting was likely to go to preferences.
Ms Milthorpe was sitting at about 14,500 first preference votes, while Labor candidate Glen Hyde had received about 10,500 primary ballots.
Across the country the Labor Party and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were on track to record a strong victory, extending control of the house of representative to at least 85 seats.
At the same time Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was tracking towards personal and political defeat with the Liberal National Coalition holding just 37 seats as of 10pm, and Mr Dutton likely to lose his Queensland seat of Dickson.
