Premier Jacinta Allan conceded her government had a lot of work to do to win voter support after the Liberals turned a safe Labor seat in Victoria into a knife-edge count in a state byelection that has implications for a federal election due within months.

With more than 50 per cent of the vote counted in the Werribee byelection, Labor’s John Lister was just shy of 53 per cent of the vote on a two-party preferred basis, ahead of Liberal candidate Steve Murphy on 47 per cent, according to the Victorian Electoral Commission website on Saturday night.