Josh Frydenberg set to keep Kooyong seat, Liberals cling to lead in Higgins

The Liberal Party was on the verge of holding on in the seat of Higgins last night, weathering a huge swing to Labor to keep a grip on its eastern suburbs heartland.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg also appeared to have fended off a two-pronged attack from Labor and the Greens in Kooyong to win the seat for a fourth time.

Josh Frydenberg voting in Kooyong with his family.Credit: Justin McManus

Liberal candidate Katie Allen held off on officially claiming victory in Higgins last night, but told jubilant supporters that her position was looking increasingly strong as the vote was counted.

“We still have a little way to go so we can’t call it yet but we’re in a strong position,” Ms Allen said, thanking state opposition leader Michael O’Brien and retiring frontbencher Kelly O’Dwyer for supporting her campaign.

Ms Allen, a paediatrician who ran unsuccessfully for the state seat of Prahran last year, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald the feeling towards her had been warm during the campaign, despite gloomy predictions from some analysts.

“I was getting these mixed messages, like people were telling me something but that’s not what I was seeing on the ground,” she said.

She said voters had told her they did not like Labor's tax agenda.

If elected, Ms Allen said she would make the promised removal of the Glenferrie Road level crossing one of her top priorities.

Labor's designs on Higgins were strong enough for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to pay a visit to a voting booth and chow down on a democracy sausage on election day.

It was a potent sign of how drastically the electoral landscape has shifted in Australia that a Labor leader would campaign vigorously in a seat previously held by prime ministers Harold Holt and John Gorton, and by treasurer Peter Costello for 19 years.

But Ms Allen led by a 3.3 per cent margin at about 10pm with almost 60 per cent of the vote counted.

Yet Labor, which polled less than 15 per cent of the primary vote in Higgins just three years ago, appeared within striking distance of a major upset as the votes were counted, as its candidate, high-profile barrister Fiona McLeod, secured a remarkable swing of 12.6 per cent.

However, the Greens vote was flat, with second-time candidate Jason Ball’s vote down 1 per cent compared with his strong showing in 2016.

Bill Shorten high-fives a boy while on the last-minute campaign trail with Labor's candidate for Higgins, Fiona McLeod.Credit: AAP

Mr Ball pushed Higgins towards more marginal territory three years ago, shaving the Liberals’ margin in the seat to 7.4 per cent.

"The seat of Higgins is too close to call," Mr Ball said late on Saturday night.

"This is lineball. There's less than a per cent in it. What we know is that a seat that was once a jewel of the Liberal crown, a seat that was held prime ministers and treasurers of the Liberal Party, is no longer a safe seat."

Ms McLeod told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald climate had dominated the list of concerns voters raised with her in this educated, affluent part of Melbourne, but argued the issue suited Labor's cause.

"Almost everybody, young and old, is raising that as their number one issue," she said.

Meanwhile voters in Kooyong, the other Liberal heartland seat of Melbourne’s inner-east, seemed to keep faith with the party and Mr Frydenberg.

The Treasurer appeared to have retained his seat despite suffering a sizeable swing.

Mr Frydenberg cast his vote at Balwyn North Primary School on Saturday morning, with wife Amie and their two children Gemma and Blake.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale (centre) smiles for a selfie with their hope for Higgins, Jason Ball (right).Credit: AAP

In Kooyong, Mr Frydenberg faced a similar three-cornered fight to hold his seat, with Greens candidate Julian Burnside, a human rights lawyer, rated his biggest threat, followed by Labor's Jana Stewart.

With a third of the vote counted, the Liberals had suffered a two-party preferred swing of 7.1 per cent, cutting Mr Frydenberg’s margin from 12.8 per cent to 5.7 per cent.

The vote against the Liberals was splintering three ways, with Mr Burnside picking up 22.4 per cent, Ms Stewart 16.7 per cent and independent Oliver Yates, who ran on a platform of climate action, 10.5 per cent.

Late on Saturday evening Mr Burnside was still hopeful.

Candidates for Higgins: Liberal's Katie Allen (far left), Labor's Fiona McLeod and Greens' Jason Ball at the Toorak Library on Saturday.Credit: Jason South

"This is a knife-edge election in Kooyong and what we do not know yet is who's going to win but what we do know is this: the seat of Kooyong has been held by conservatives since Federation," he said.

"It's been held by the Liberal Party since it was formed. And this day, May 18, 2019, has changed politics in Australia for ever. You can never take for granted a seat held by the Treasurer of this country because Josh Frydenberg spent maybe $2 million on his campaign – that'd be my assessment – frightened by the Greens.

"The Greens are strong enough in this country to present a real threat to the government of the day, to the sitting Treasurer, in what is regarded until now as a safe Liberal seat. The fact is, politics in Australia has now changed forever."