Election 2016: Liberals victory on the northern beaches as Tony Abbott, Jason Falinski win Warringah, Mackellar

TONY Abbott was greeted with cheers of “Tony, Tony” as he claimed victory in the seat of Warringah. The former PM said it had been a tough campaign with all candidates “doing their best to drag you down”.

Tony Abbott is hugged by wife Margie. Picture: Braden Fastier

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The Liberal Party swept to victory across the northern beaches with wins for Warringah MP Tony Abbott and Mackellar newcomer Jason Falinski.

While the voters appear to have given the major parties a kick — with a big primary swing towards the independents — the preferences have flowed to the Liberals to give them a comfortable win in both peninsula seats.

Early results showed Mr Abbott taking Warringah with 61.8 per cent, despite a 3.5 per cent swing towards Labor.

Mr Falinski, who stood in beleaguered Bronwyn Bishop’s former seat, was expected to win comfortably by 66 per cent with only an 2.8 per cent swing to Labor.

Mackellar’s Jason Falinski and wife Nichola voting at Mona Vale Memorial Hall

Mr Abbott took to the stage at Manly Lifesaving Club to declare victory to the chants of “Tony, Tony, Tony!”

In his victory speech Abbott admitted the campaign had been tough.

“Everyone bar one was an anti-Abbott candidates and when you’ve got eight people who are doing their best to drag you down, it’s not surprising that you lose a few votes here and a few votes there,” he said.

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“Nevertheless what we can say very confidently that Warringah is still a very strong Liberal seat and your local member is looking forward to another three good strong years representing the people of the best part of the best city in the best country on earth

Mr Abbott also pledged to work on a tunnel under Mosman, plus push the Brookvale upgrade.

He said: “We’ve got a lot to do — obviously. It’s very important working with the state government to get Brookie oval finally fixed.

Tony Abbott points out his mum in the crowd. Picture: Braden Fastier

“And the big challenge is going to be putting in that beautiful new stand to upgrade the whole of Brookie oval without losing the atmosphere of the hill. We don’t want to ruin that for a second do we?

“I was so pleased that having got the new Northern Beaches Hospital up and running ... just a few weeks ago we saw $17 million, serious money, to make a serious start on a tunnel underneath Mosman. It needs to happen and it will happen.”

The big shock of the evening has come from the independents and minor parties who have taken a large slice of the primary vote from the major parties.

The Liberals have suffered a 10 per cent swing in their primary vote in both electorates. In Warringah, there are swings away for Labor’s Andrew Woodward (4.5 per cent) and The Greens’ Clara Williams Roldan (3.6 per cent).

Tony Abbott voting at Forestville Public school. Picture: Braden Fastier

These primary votes went high profile Independent candidate and former TV host James Mathison (12 per cent) and Nick Xenophon Team candidate Marie Rowland (6.4 per cent).

In Mackellar there has been a small swing against The Greens’ Mike Hall (0.5) while Labor’s Rhonda Funnell’s vote has made a slight gain.

The lost primary votes in Mackellar went towards Independent candidate and former 2GB host Jim Ball (7.4 per cent) and Independent candidate and former Pittwater councillor Julie Hegarty (4.6 per cent).

Greens candidate Mike Hall with Liberal Jason Falinski

Mr Falinski has promised to “visit bus stops and thank people for voting for me” after claiming victory in Mackellar.

Mr Falinski claimed 66.17 per cent of the two party preferred vote over Labor’s Rhonda Funnell and said his first action would be to get out and meet his constituents.

“This sounds strange but I want to go into bus stops and thank people for voting for me and indicate that I will always be open to their concerns and even if they don’t like what I have done I want them to always know that I am listening and that I will do everything I possibly can to help them,” he said.

Newly elected Mackellar MP Jason Falinski with wife Nichola Constant.

Mr Falinski lost about 10 per cent of the primary vote held by outgoing MP Bronwyn Bishop, but he put it down mostly to having more candidates running.

“There was a lot of different things but the main difference was we just had a lot more candidates this time around than we had last time,” he said.

“Even if just their immediate family voted for them that probably explains a large part of the drop,” he said, arguing they made it up on preferences.

“I am really proud of my campaign team. I think they managed to get a swing in favour for us in the two party preferred and I am really humbled to represent the area in which I was born and I grew up in and have lived in virtually my entire life.”

Mr Falinski said he wanted to get cracking on transport woes and NBN connectivity straight away.

“The big thing I would really like to get my teeth stuck into is accelerating the rollout of the NBN locally and also working with Rob Stokes (State Pittwater MP) and Brad Hazzard (State Wakehurst MP) to talk about how we can accelerate some of the transport infrastructure programs the State Government has planned in this area and see if we can push some if not all of them forward.”

Meanwhile Mr Mathison told the Manly Daily he will remain a thorn in Tony Abbott’s side and will “be back in 2019”.

When asked what was next for him, he laughed, and said “sleep”.

“I haven’t slept for a month, let me sleep then lets talk about it, but I will be back definitely in 2019,” he said.

“This is just the start, if we can do that on the back of five weeks with no resources, imagine what we can do if we build over the next few years … I would love to have another crack and give it a lot more preparation and resources and see what happens.”

Osher Gunsberg helped campaign with James Mathison.

While he didn’t win the election, Mr Mathison claimed his numbers as a victory.

“We are elated, we are so stoked, for over a nine per cent swing away from him and we have got from a standings tart with a tiny team, over 11 per cent of the vote, almost as much as The Greens and not far off Labor, that was in five weeks,” Mr Mathison told the Manly Daily

Mr Mathison said the swing away from a rusted-on Liberal base should send a strong message to Mr Abbott.

“He has gone from 60 per cent to 51 per cent and that is not from a major party, that is just a small independent using social media and trying to tap into a message that he wasn’t representing the electorate, so I think that sends a really strong message,” Mr Mathison said,

“He has been talking about how he has been Mr Warringah the last eight weeks, well how about you be Mr Warringah the entire time, not just at election time.

“He was on Sky News the other night and said, ‘look I am not looking for a ministry position I am content with being the representative for Warringah’.

James Mathison voting at St Kevin's school hall.

“I was like you are content? You are content? You should be overjoyed you should be thrilled you should be honoured, not just content, so hopefully he starts to wake up a little bit.”

The dual Liberal victory was despite a rocky 12 months for the party on the northern beaches with Mr Abbott being demoted to the backbench and former speaker Bronwyn Bishop failing to be preselected for her blue-ribbon Mackellar seat.

According to Mr Falinski, taking over from Ms Bishop was tough. “She was in public life for three decades, she was well known,” he said. “But at the same time a lot have said it has been good to have a fresh perspective.”