Federal election 2019 results: Mayo electorate | Sharkie defeats Downer again

Same seat, same foes and same result: Centre Alliance incumbent Rebekha Sharkie will retain the once blue-ribbon Liberal seat of Mayo.

Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie with supporters at Wallis Cinema in Mitcham for the Centre Alliance election night party. Picture: Brenton Edwards

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Same seat, same foe but Georgina Downer was delivered the same message by voters of Mayo — we don’t want you.

The Liberal challenger and daughter of former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer failed in a second attempt in less than 10 months to claim the once blue-ribbon seat her father lorded over for more than two decades.

While ahead of incumbent Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie on first-preference votes, Ms Downer lost where it counted — on the two-party preferred vote — lagging 45.05 per cent to 54.95 per cent with 75 per cent of votes counted.

The result was only marginally better than the thumping she was handed in the July by-election triggered by Ms Sharkie’s resignation during the citizenship scandal.

Ms Sharkie has yet to officially claim victory but her supporters were in ebullient mood, congratulating her on another win as the count went into the night.

“This one was tough, this one was tough,” she told party faithful who welcomed her with raucous applause and cheers at a Centre Alliance Party at the Mitcham Wallis Cinema. Ms Downer was yet to concede defeat.

FEDERAL

2019

Adelaide

Barker

Boothby

Grey

Hindmarsh

Kingston

Makin

Mayo

Spence

Sturt

Ms Sharkie, who stormed to a maiden election victory in 2016 unseating Liberal frontbencher Jamie Briggs on the Nick Xenophon Team ticket, said her community realised the importance of having a marginal seat.

“When you have that marginal seat held by a crossbencher you have someone representing you, you don’t have someone beholden to a major party, beholden to big business, who is beholden to a union.

“I think I have been able to demonstrate to my community very clearly that I am about Mayo every day of the week.”

Ms Sharkie will have a significant role to play in the event of a minority government and said priorities include a federal ICAC, political donation reform, a federal royal commission into the River Murray, protection for the Bight and increased NDIS funding.

“We’ve achieved a lot for our community but there’s much more do for Mayo,” she said.

Georgina Downer voting at Stirling East Primary School on Saturday. Picture: Ashleigh Pisani

Ms Downer, 39, was reluctant to concede defeat at her election function last night.

“We’re still seeing results come in and there was an enormous amount of pre- polls and postal votes so we’ll see,” she said.

“We ran a huge campaign here and this will be a night full of some disappointments but mainly really, really good news.

“It looks like we’re going to retain government, which is absolutely fabulous news for the country and for South Australia.”

Ms Downer’s father, Alexander, held Mayo for 24 years from 1984 to 2008, and her grandfather Alick and great-grandfather John were also politicians.

A particular highlight, she said, was being picked as the winner in Mayo by the Advertiser’s democracy sausage dog, Eva.

“I was very excited that Eva the democracy sausage dog chose my sausage, that was very encouraging,” she said with a laugh.

Her post-election function was at Mt Barker in the ballroom of heritage-listed Auchendarroch House.

She would not say whether she planned to run for a third time at the next election.

Earlier in the day, polling booths were quiet and volunteers in Mount Barker told the Sunday Mail that very few people were stopping to collect how-to-vote cards instead heading straight inside to vote.

“It’s extraordinary, I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve never seen people so decisive about which way they are going,” one volunteer said.