State Election results and wrap up for North seats
LABOR is cleaning up in the state’s north, with all seats appearing safe in the party’s hands after a huge turn out for the left.
North
Don't miss out on the headlines from North. Followed categories will be added to My News.
LABOR is cleaning up in the state’s north, with all seats appearing safe in the party’s hands after a huge turn out for the left.
Broadmeadows
Incumbent Frank McGuire has been re-elected for a second term in Broadmeadows after waltzing through yesterday’s state election with more than 64 per cent of first preference votes for Labor.
Mr McGuire addressed a small crowd at the Hume Global Learning Centre last night saying history had been made.
“It’s a huge honour and privilege to win the seat where you grew up and was such a part of my family’s identity,” he told Leader.
The Broadmeadows electorate, traditionally a safe Labor seat, was established in 1955 and has been held by the ALP since 1962.
Mr McGuire, the older brother of media giant Eddie McGuire, won the seat at a by-election in 2011.
Liberal candidate Evren Onder earlier said they needed to be realistic about Labor’s 20 per cent margin going in.
“We just tried to make people aware of our policies and what we have in mind,” he said.
“I hope we did a good job there.”
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Broadmeadows
Brunswick
Re-elected Brunswick MP Jane Garrett says Moreland’s residential zones will be immediately implemented and holes will be briskly dug on shovel-ready projects.
With 54 per cent of the vote counted, the Labor candidate holds a 3.5 per cent two-party preferred lead over Greens candidate Tim Read, a similar margin to her 2010 victory.
Though almost half of the votes were still to be counted, Ms Garrett said “we don’t feel it is up in the air from our point of view, we are very confident we have won the seat”.
But Dr Read was holding out hope, albeit slight.
“We will know a lot more tomorrow night,” he said. “I expect the margin to narrow a bit.
“It’s too early to know for sure, because pre-poll and absentee votes tend to count differently.
“But we would have to do a lot better to win. I think that is highly unlikely. I think my medical career is safe.”
“We are very proud of our efforts and our campaign. And we’re thrilled to finally get a voice in the lower house (having won Melbourne).
“It gives us a little bit more ability to do things like bring private member bills and put through our own lower house agenda.”
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Brunswick
Bundoora
Labor incumbent Colin Brooks said he was honoured but not too surprised to celebrate his third election victory.
Mr Brooks said booth figures showed a two party preferred swing of 4 per cent to Labor across the electorate, but the final figure could change once 9000 pre-poll votes were counted.
Mr Brooks said Labor’s promise to reopen Greensborough TAFE got him over the line as well as his promise to fight to stop the sale of the Merv Irvine nursing home.
“For people who might not have been sure how they were going to vote, the closure of Greenbsorough TAFE and our commitment to reopen it was a key factor in people’s decisions, from what they were telling me,” he said.
Mr Brooks said ambulance response times were also a big issue in the area and Labor.
Liberal candidate Amita Gill wished Mr Brooks all the best.
She said she didn’t believe she would have done anything differently and said she didn’t think ill will towards the Federal Government made Victorians choose Labor.
“There is nothing we would have done differently; I think we all did our best,” she said.
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Bundoora
Eltham
While Liberal hopeful Steve Briffa attracted more first preference votes, Labor’s Vicki Ward claimed the seat after the distribution of preferences.
Ms Ward, who replaces Labor MP Steve Herbert, said Labor’s promise to reopen Greensborough TAFE was a key issue in her campaign.
“I think people were genuinely worried about jobs, especially jobs for young people, and TAFE,” she said.
“People were surprised the TAFE had been closed and I just think people thought … what was happening (in Victoria) was going backwards.”
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Eltham
Ivanhoe
Anthony Carbines has called a win in a tightly fought battle with Liberal candidate Carl Ziebell for his second term at Ivanhoe MP.
“There was a swing to Labor in Ivanhoe of over 2 per cent and my primary vote has increased,” Mr Carbines said.
“While I don’t expect to win the pre-poll, we’ll hold our own, the trend with remain the same and we’ll win Ivanhoe.”
“I think in the end you are just relieved it’s (the election) over and you’ll get on with what you’ve committed to.
“To increase our primary vote means more people voted for us and I am very humbled.”
Mr Carbines said he won Viewbank, Banyule and Heidelberg primary schools’ voting booths — a turnaround from the 2010 state election.
He said he wanted to get moving on his commitments, including the redevelopment at Viewbank Secondary College and the issues on Rosanna Rd.
“Everything I’ve promised I want to see delivered,” Mr Carbines said.
“I think having the party in government there is a greater expectation you can deliver for the community.”
Ivanhoe state Liberal candidate Carl Ziebell said he would not be standing for the seat of Ivanhoe again at the next election.
“More than 50 per cent of the population didn’t want me to win,” Mr Ziebell said.
“I’m pretty shattered.”
Mr Ziebell said while the Green vote was slightly down statewide on the last election the Ivanhoe suburb booths showed a 25 per cent increase.
“At the Ivanhoe Primary School booth there were about 600 Green votes,” Mr Ziebell said.
“I can’t compete with that on my own.
“Out of the 600 I’m getting about 27.”
“We’re moving into a society with more extreme socialist ideology.”
Banyule Mayor Craig Langdon said the electorate would be worse off with Mr Carbines and under Labor.
“Looking at the election commitments, we are far worse off,” Cr Langdon said.
“In the Labor heartland — my ward (Olympia) — gets very little commitment … there was no commitment to reopen the police station despite the fact (Mr Carbines had) been campaigning for years about it.”
Cr Langdon said he ran as an Independent for Ivanhoe to raise important issues and it was never his intention to win.
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Ivanhoe
Macedon
LABOR’S Mary-Anne Thomas is primed to secure the seat of Macedon.
Liberal candidate Donna Petrovich was not prepared to concede, hopeful postal and pre-poll votes could claw back ground.
But Ms Thomas appears home.
She said she was pleased with a strong Labor result in Woodend — ironically the town where Ms Petrovich campaigned strongly as being “the local candidate”.
Ms Thomas said Labor had led a proactive campaign, coming out with early commitments such as education pledges in Kyneton.
“I think by coming out early with commitments such as Daylesford Secondary College and Kyneton Primary School, we set the agenda for the community and I think the Liberals have played catch up,” she said.
“Even if I didn’t win I was pleased we could secure funding for the electorate.”
Ms Petrovich and supporters were subdued as results trickled in across the electorate and further afield.
“I’m not uncomfortable at the moment and not conceding anything yet as there may be 10,000 pre-polls still to be counted,” she said.
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Macedon
Mill Park
LABOR MP Lily D’Ambrosio has easily retained her safe Labor seat and said she would work hard to ensure her constituents received the services and support they deserved.
“Making sure the Mernda rail (extension) gets started as soon as possible and we need to fix up the O’Herns Rd interchange,’’ she said.
Liberal candidate George Varughese said he had enjoyed the experience.
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Mill Park
Northcote
Labor MP Fiona Richardson is this morning hanging on to power, holding off Greens candidate and Darebin councillor Trent McCarthy.
Ms Richardson said she was “just thrilled to see Labor back in government and I’m looking forward to the community benefiting”.
“It’s always been Northcote first for me — whether in government or opposition I’ve prioritised local residents,” she said.
But Cr McCarthy was reluctant to concede defeat.
“We smashed it at pre-poll — we had a really great response,” the Greens candidate said.
“About 25 per cent voted at pre-poll so we won’t know the final result or how close we got until that’s counted.”
Cr McCarthy said winning Northcote was “always going to be a long shot”, but there had been a “massive swing away from Labor to the Greens” in the seat.
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Northcote
Preston
Sitting Preston state Labor MP Robin Scott has won his seat for the third time, calling the victory “a lovely Christmas present”.
“People here need to be represented by people who care about them,” he said.
“This time the Labor Party did less looking in and more looking out — it’s not about dividing the spoils, but about changing the mind of ordinary people — directly communicating.”
Mr Scott also paid tribute to former Preston MP Michael Leighton — for whom Mr Scott was an electorate officer — who died last month.
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Preston
Sunbury
Labor is poised to win in the new state seat of Sunbury, despite a massive amount of pre-poll votes still to be counted.
Labor’s Josh Bull has a strong two-party preferred lead over Liberal Jo Hagan.
But 48 per cent of Sunbury voters chose to vote prior to election day and won’t be counted until tomorrow.
Mr Bull said he was in shock at the scale of Labor’s win across the state and the strong figures coming in for Sunbury.
“It’s a bit surreal — I’m in shock,” he said.
“It’s a credit to our volunteers who have led a real strong grassroots campaign.”
Mr Bull said he believed Sunbury voters had genuine concerns from budget cuts announced by the Federal Government.
Ms Hagan said she was shocked by the results of the election across the state.
But she was not willing to concede the seat with so many votes still to be counted.
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Sunbury
Yan Yean
Labor MP Danielle Green is likely to retain the seat of Yan Yean after declaring the electorate was “never easy” to win.
While Ms Green and Liberal candidate Sam Ozturk said they would wait for the pre-poll votes to be counted before celebrating or conceding, the Yan Yean incumbent holds a lead of more than 5 per cent after distribution of preferences.
Ms Green has held the seat since 2002 and Recent boundary changes gave Yan Yean a notional Liberal majority of 0.2 per cent, but Ms Green said a growing population meant the margin would keep changing.
Liberal candidate Sam Ozturk said he had a positive response from voters, despite losing the seat.
“It’s always difficult to knock off a sitting member,’’ Mr Ozturk said.
“So many new people have moved in, you have to consider that.
“We’ve had a strong campaign, our presence is felt.”
Click HERE for the latest vote count in Yan Yean
Yuroke
Former Hume mayor Ros Spence has claimed victory for Labor in Yuroke, taking over from the retired Liz Beattie, who represented the seat since 2002 following three years in the former electorate of Tullamarine.
Ms Spence led the way with more than 54 per cent of the primary votes, ahead of Liberal candidate Phulvinderjit Grewal.
Mr Grewal, who was involved in politics in his native India, conceded Labor would win before the count had started, but said his intention was to close in on the margin, which had been in Labor’s favour by about 10,000 votes at the 2010 ballot.
Greens candidate Natalie Abboud was not ready to concede defeat last night.
“We’re going to just wait because of what happened at pre-polling,” Ms Abboud said.
Tradies to admit to bribing VBA staff
Three tradies exposed in an anti-corruption investigators will admit to bribing staffers at the state’s building regulator.
‘Do you like the food?’: VIC aged care home food rating revealed
In Victoria, there are 284 aged care homes where one person or more claimed to never be happy with the food they were served. See who is serving up culinary delights and who falls short.