Labor cleanskin Jodi McKay wins Strathfield back from Liberals

ONE of the party’s stars in the last Labor government, Jodi McKay has made a triumphant return to state politics after winning Strathfield.

Embargoed until Tuesday April 1, Inner West Labor Candidate Jodi McKay.

NEWLY elected Strathfield Labor MP Jodi McKay had a nervous wait and it wasn’t until this morning that she was able to breath a sigh of relief.

“We’re there,” she told the Inner West Courier.

“We didn’t think the i-votes were going to be counted overnight, but they were, and he (Casuscelli) can’t catch us now.

“I can’t describe how relieved I am.”

Parachuted into the seat last year to challenge incumbent Liberal MP Charles Casuscelli, Jodi McKay’s victory in Strathfield is one of the great resurrection stories of NSW politics.

Losing her seat of Newcastle when Labor was wiped out at the 2011 election, McKay’s candidacy in the inner west seat hit a sore point with the party’s supporters after Burwood Mayor John Faker was snubbed for the role.

Labor's Jodi McKay arrives to fanfare at her post-election party.

But the decision to install McKay as their candidate has paid off for Labor, with the former cabinet minister recording an 8 per cent swing in the party’s favour with 81 per cent of the vote counted.

McKay was brought back into the political spotlight early last year after strong performances during the ICAC corruption scandal involving mining magnate Nathan Tinkler.

Her cleanskin image was enough to convince then-Labor leader John Robertson she was the right person to contest Strathfield, and now the rest is history.

On Saturday at her election party at Burwood’s Coronation Club, McKay arrived to cheers of ‘Jodi, Jodi, Jodi’ with the early count showing her slightly ahead.

After hugs, and a few tears, Ms McKay addressed her volunteers and supporters.

“We’ve run a campaign that has let people know that politics can be better, it can be about the people,” she said

“Eight months ago I never thought I’d be here.

STRATHFIELD IS TOO CLOSE TO CALL

LIBERALS SECURE SEAT OF DRUMMOYNE

NEWTOWN VOTES NO TO WESTCONNEX

“ICAC happened and now I’m standing here and the reason I’m here is that I have a burning desire for politics to be better.

“We always knew this would be a really tough fight.

“But we’ve reached out to people.”

Labor's Jodi McKay was surrounded by a sea of red on Saturday night.

On Sunday, things were still too close to call and Ms McKay had reason to be confident but wasn’t calling it.

But on Monday morning she could finally start getting her head around being the new MP for Strathfield.

“I woke up this morning and checked the site,” she said.

“We were about 500 ahead yesterday (Sunday night), and there were about 4000 i-votes to count,” she said.

“These were a real challenge, because it is knew and we just didn’t know what the demographic would be.

“But they fell pretty evenly, quite a few to the Greens actually, and he can’t catch us now.”

Jodi Mckay is not the only Labor candidate to secure an inner west seat this election, with Jo Haylen taking the seat of Summer Hill.

Jodi McKay and Jo Haylen have plenty to smile about.

Former Strathfield MP Charles Casucelli.

A disappointed Mr Casuscelli said he’s had the most wonderful, pleasant experiences having met warm, sensitive and caring people who are really focused on their community.

He said it’s more about the journey than the destination, mainly naming infrastructure as his biggest achievement, and particularly the announcement of WestConnex.

“We’ve had some wonderful initiatives; we built two new schools, started to rebuild Flemington and Croydon railway stations, made an announcement over Homebush, completed Concord West train station and rebuilt the concourse at Strathfield station,” Mr Casuscelli said.

“WestConnex it is the number one issue in this electorate and this is something that Jodi and the Labor Party will have to figure out.

“Everyone, not just in this electorate, says traffic congestion is the number one issue across the inner west — the only government courageous enough to deal with it has been Mike Baird’s.”

While the seat has always been a tug of war between the two major party’s, it’s mainly been in the hands of the Libs with Paul Zammit first at the helm, followed by Bruce MacCarthy.

Mr Casuscelli believes the Libs will come back to the seat in the next state election.

“My feeling is Strathfield has now become a Liberal seat — the closeness (of the votes) really reflects the unprecedented level of resources thrown by the Labor Party,” Mr Casuscelli said.

Mr Casuscelli represented Strathfield from 2011 when he defeated former Labor minister Virginia Judge.

John Sidoti is now the only Liberal with a seat (Drummoyne) in the inner west.