Electoral commission declares independent doctor winner of Wagga Wagga
INDEPENDENT candidate Dr Joe McGirr has officially cinched victory in the six-decade Liberal stronghold seat of Wagga Wagga.
NSW
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INDEPENDENT candidate Dr Joe McGirr has officially cinched victory in the six-decade Liberal stronghold seat of Wagga Wagga.
The NSW Electoral Commission has declared the local doctor to be the winner following a preference count, forcing the Liberal Party to relinquish a seat they’ve held since 1957.
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“I’m very excited, it’s very humbling experience,” Dr McGirr told The Daily Telegraph.
“I’ve just put in a call to speaker’s office but I was hopeful I might be there (in parliament) for Tuesday.”
Dr McGirr scored 59.6 per cent of the vote on a two-party preferred basis while the Liberal Party’s Julia Ham received 40.4 per cent.
The result of the by-election, held last Saturday, was expected on Thursday but ended up being delayed due to huge numbers of pre-poll votes and ballot papers marked with multiple preferences.
Ms Ham conceded defeat on the night polls closed after suffering devastating swings of more than 30 per cent in booths across the electorate.
Labor’s Dan Hayes did not roll over as quickly but acknowledged it would be difficult for the party to win.
Dr McGirr and Ms Ham both secured 25 per cent of the primary vote while Mr Hayes received 24 per cent of first preference ballots.
While only deciding to run for the seat three weeks prior to the by-election, it’s not Dr McGirr’s first tilt at Wagga — he ran as an independent in 2011 and secured 30 per cent of the vote.
The by-election was triggered by the sudden career implosion of disgraced former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.
Mr Maguire resigned in July after the Independent Commission Against Corruption released secret recordings of him using his parliamentary position to tout for kickbacks from “mega rich” Chinese property developers.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian copped a grilling earlier this week over the loss of the seat, which has sparked divisions within the Coalition after she said the Nationals would not run in a three-cornered contest.
But Ms Berejiklian put the blame on Canberra’s doorstep, saying the federal leadership coup combined with Mr Maguire’s exit had created a “perfect storm”.
“The timing of the by-election coincided with other major political events that could not have been foreseen,” she said at the time.
“It was the perfect storm. The disenchant was doubled by, obviously, the actions of the former member, but also what happened at other levels of government.”