By Charlene Macaulay
Werribee MP Tim Pallas is calling the election swing against him a “robust demonstration of democracy”.
Despite a statewide overall swing to Labor at the election, Mr Pallas suffered an 11.1 per cent swing against him in the primary vote, achieving 45.41 per cent of first preferences.
He finished on 52.12 per cent of the vote after the distribution of preferences, down 13 percentage points from his 2014 victory.
Independent Joe Garra, who ran for the first time, held 25.93 per cent of the vote after preferences, followed by the Liberals’ Gayle Murphy on 21.95 per cent.
Mr Pallas said it was a great honour to be re-elected.
“I never take these things for granted … I feel honoured to be able to give the best of my efforts to try and meet those expectations and aspirations of a growing community,” he said.
“I think any swing that goes against you is a message that every politician should listen to.
“There’s a lot going on, we’re delivering a lot, but this is a community that … has great expectations and deservedly so.”
Mr Pallas said his main priority in the coming term would be to implement all of Labor’s election commitments.
He said the government would get on with consulting the community about what the best design solutions were for the Werribee and Cottrell street level crossing removals.
Mr Garra said he would continue to advocate for the needs of the community and would reconsider his options for the next
election.
“I was very pleased with a short campaign and very limited spend to get 20 per cent of the voters voting for me, I was really quite humbled by that,” he said.
