Joanne Ryan has retained her hold on the seat of Lalor, with voters across Wyndham returning the incumbent Labor MP with a thumping majority.
The two-candidate preferred (TCP) result had Ms Ryan on 64.25 per cent of the vote, with the Liberals’ Gayle Murphy receiving 35.75 per cent. There was a swing of 2.09 per cent in Ms Ryan’s favour.
Reflecting on the campaign and the local result, Ms Ryan said she was humbled, honoured and ready to get to work.
“It doesn’t matter who voted for me – I’ll represent everyone in this community,” she said.
Her focus in the next three years, she said, would be health, education, jobs and infrastructure.
With the Australia First Party running a strongly anti-immigration campaign in Lalor, accusing both major parties of “plonking immigrants and refugees” in the electorate, Ms Ryan said she was proud that the community hadn’t been distracted by “fear campaigns based on race and religion”.
In neighbouring electorates, Labor’s Tim Watts comfortably held on to Gellibrand (69.03 per cent TCP) while Brendan O’Connor will return as the Labor MP for Gorton (69.74 per cent TCP).
As Star Weekly went to print on Tuesday, neither Labor nor the Coalition had won enough seats to form a majority government.
An analysis by Fairfax Media put the lower house count at 71 seats to the Coalition and 65 to Labor. Independents claimed five seats, and the Greens one. Eight seats remained too close to call. The final lower house seat count is not expected to be known until week’s end.
– With Alexandra Laskie
