Australian federal election 2016: Labor regains Eden-Monaro, wins Macarthur

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NSW Labor had claimed the bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro, with another iconic bellwether, Lindsay on a knife-edge in western Sydney last night.

Former Labor minister Mike Kelly unseated Liberal MP Peter Hendy in Eden-Monaro, where council amalgamations had burnt as a major issue, and Mr Hendy was criticised for having a low profile as a local member.

Mr Kelly said it was "an insult to take them for granted".

"There was a great deal of dissatisfaction with the performance of the member - it was palpable. He was the first member in history who had refused to participate in community debates."

Labor candidate for Eden-Monaro Mike Kelly arrives at his celebration at Queanbeyan Leagues Club on Saturday night.Credit: Jay Cronan

Mr Kelly said the Liberal base had also punished Mr Hendy for his role in the coup against Tony Abbott by voting Labor.

"People were telling me they were voting Labor for the first time in their lives," he said.

Lindsay was too close to call. Labor leader Bill Shorten staged Labor's campaign launch there, and had bolstered the Medicare campaign by promising $88 million to the struggling Nepean Hospital.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made repeated visits to Lindsay by train, including on poll day, to support Liberal MP Fiona Scott.The message was the Liberal Party supported small business, and long-distance commuters, and was promising to create jobs closer to home with a western Sydney cities deal.

Liberal Peter Hendy lost the seat of Eden-Monaro but has since been handed a number of government roles.Credit: Rohan Thomson

Large sections of western Sydney appeared to be returning to Labor last night after a fierce battle that saw Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten spending their final two campaign days crossing its marginal electorates.

Labor's challenge was to return the heartland lost in 2013, while the Liberals wanted to continue the march.

Labor wrested Macarthur from the Liberals, returned in Barton and foiled an ambitious Liberal tilt at Gough Whitlam's seat of Werriwa.

Labor was expected to retain Parramatta and Greenway.

NSW Labor's general secretary Kaila Murnain said: "Labor's disciplined arguments, sheer hard work and tenacious local campaigning are the backbone of this result."

NSW Liberal state director Chris Stone said: "A number of NSW seats were always going to be tight but there are a large number of prepoll and postal votes to come in."

In Lindsay, Labor was slightly ahead with 50.5 per cent on 2PP, but there were 17,000 prepoll and postal votes to be counted and a result was expected to take several days.

Across NSW, 911,462 pre-poll votes have been lodged, with an extra 113,585 people voting early compared to 2013.

NSW Labor had aggressively campaigned to 'get out' the pre-poll vote, sending SMS messages, robocalls and direct mail encouraging voters in marginal seats to vote early.

The SMS gave information on the location of pre-poll booths, and was designed to get votes cast before the predicted barrage of Liberal TV advertising in the last days of the election campaign, Labor sources have revealed. Field teams were also put in marginal seats last year.

Both parties had expected the fight for the outer western seat of Macarthur, near Campbelltown, to be close. Labor said Medicare had struck a chord as an issue, and it had a popular doctor, Mike Freelander, as the Labor candidate to ram home the message against the sitting Liberal MP Russell Matheson.

In Greenway, covering Blacktown, Liberal candidate Yvonne Keane was carrying the weight of her party's expectations of a win for western Sydney. But Labor MP Michelle Rowland, who had heroically held the seat against expectations in 2013, repeated history.

Labor's Julie Owen was expected to retain Parramatta, in the face of an onslaught of big dollar infrastructure announcements from the Baird government.

Labor's Susan Templeman won in Macquarie in the Blue Mountains, on the back of dissent over aircraft noise from the planned second airport, Hawkesbury traffic, and a televised gaffe by Liberal MP Louise Markus, who struggled to name her "biggest achievement" in an interview on ABC's 7.30 program.

Labor emailed the video to the electorate, and drove a truck with a video screen to polling booths.

On the South Coast, Gilmore was too close to call. On the North Coast, Page, where almost a third of the electorate had pre-polled, was a tight race between Labor and the Nationals.

Dobell on the Central Coast and Paterson near Newcastle had become notionally Labor after a boundary change, and were claimed by Labor.

In Dobell, the Labor vote lost when disgraced MP Craig Thomson was MP returned to deliver a victory to Labor's Emma McBride over the Liberal's Karen McNamara.