MURRAY Plains incumbent Peter Walsh has retained the safe Nationals seat for a sixth term, with a massive 63 per cent of the first preference vote.
The Nationals leader secured 22,408 first preference votes to Labor candidate Damien Hurrell’s 6571.
After preferences, Mr Walsh amassed 73.7 per cent of the vote, with 26.3 per cent to Labor.
Mr Walsh outperformed Mr Hurrell at all voting centres in the two-party preferred count.
Mr Walsh thanked the electorate for their support despite sitting in Opposition for another four years.
He said the state election was a “Nationals triumph” and proved it was “the voice of regional Victoria” as it turned six Legislative Assembly seats into nine and was certain to see Gaelle Broad in Northern Victoria to join Melina Bath (Eastern Victoria) in the Upper House.
“I cannot thank the people in Murray Plains enough for their support of me, personally, as their representative in the Victorian Parliament, and also of The Nationals across the state,” Mr Walsh said.
“Despite having to work from the Opposition benches, our party has been able to deliver at the grassroots level as well as strongly influencing issues at a state level in the Parliament.
“I believe that through the disaster that was our state’s management of the COVID pandemic, and hyper locally, the current flooding situation, as the local member I have been able to help so many people facing so many challenges – from the spectre of financial ruin with their businesses to the equally damaging emotional damage caused by lockdowns and now by floods.
“This has been three very tough years for everyone, and the way in which our communities have worked together to meet them head on has been the signature statement of people right across regional Victoria.
Mr Walsh said The Nationals success in regaining Shepparton, Morwell (to be confirmed) and Mildura from independents also meant “people have woken up to the fact a lone voice in the political wilderness is not just the waste of a vote, it is a waste of time”.
“Now the challenge facing us as an Opposition is to rebuild the urban understanding of the Liberals-Nationals partnership, to consolidate on the strong swings that partnership received across traditionally red-hot Labor strongholds and recapture the losses in areas such as Melbourne’s east,” he said.
The Coalition is expected have two MPs in the Upper House region that includes Kerang and Cohuna for the first time in four years.
With more than a third of the vote counted in Northern Victoria, current Liberal MP Wendy Lovell was on track to be first elected.
She was expected to be joined by The Nationals candidate Gaelle Broad, gaining a seat for her party.
Labor was set to lose one of their two seats, with Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes being returned.
The other two positions were set to go to Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and Georgie Purcell of the Animal Justice Party.
Tania Maxwell of Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party and Liberal Democrat Tim Quilty were not on track to be returned.
Total enrolment as close of rolls: 48622
Formal votes: 35587
Informal votes: 2236 (5.91% of the total votes)
Total votes: 37823 (77.79% of the total enrolment at the close of rolls)
First preference |
Vote % |
Votes |
Swing |
|
National |
63.0% | 22,408 | +2.6% |
|
Labor |
18.5% | 6,571 | -0.9% |
|
Family First Victoria |
6.1% | 2,187 | +6.1% |
|
Freedom Party Victoria |
4.4% | 1,571 | +4.4% |
|
Greens John Brownstein |
3.4% | 1,201 | -0.9% |
|
Independent |
2.5% | 884 | +2.5% |
|
Animal Justice |
2.1% | 765 | +2.2% |
