Federal election: seat of Goldstein has 90 votes in it

Liberals closing in on teal in rare good news for the party in Victoria.

Zoe Daniel outside Hampton Holy Trinity Church with her dog Tully. Picture: The Australian / Nadir Kinani

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Liberal Tim Wilson has mounted a dramatic fightback to slash Zoe Daniel’s lead in Goldstein and is now just 90 votes behind the teal MP.

Mr Wilson — swept from the heartland seat by the teal wave of 2022 — started Sunday trailing Ms Daniel by 1800 votes, but by 4pm Sunday had clawed back enough votes to be almost neck-and-neck.

Australian Electoral Commission counting has Ms Daniel clinging to the narrowest of leads, 50.05-49.95 per cent, meaning the final result in the fiercely contested bayside seat may not be known for days.

Victorian Liberals were growing more confident on Sunday that Mr Wilson could overtake Ms Daniel and reclaim the seat off the back of strong showing in postal votes and preference flows. Mr Wilson has declined to comment on the latest counting.

On Saturday night, Ms Daniel appeared to claim victory when addressing supporters but by yesterday, she had issued a social media post admitting the seat was still in play.

“We have some very tight numbers friends with pre poll and postal votes still being counted,” she said. “Not clear yet unfortunately.”

Ms Daniel wrote in a Facebook post about on Sunday that the “result in Goldstein is obviously close and it will be some days before the result is confirmed”.

“I again thank the voters of Goldstein for their support as well as the many volunteers who worked tirelessly on my campaign,” she said.

Goldstein has witnessed one of the most bitter elections in the country with Climate 200 pumping $520,000 into teal-coloured Tesla driving Ms Daniel’s campaign.

On Saturday night, Ms Daniel appeared very confident of victory when she entered the Elwood Bowls Club.

“It’s been a hard campaign team, but in Goldstein, hope wins,” Ms Daniel began.

“I want to say to our children and our young people that everyone in this room has done this for you. We have taken a hell of a lot and we have done it to try to create a better future for this country.

“I’m so grateful to everyone who voted for me, thank you.. It is a big exercise in trust and I value that so much. For those who didn’t vote for me, I will strive to represent you as best as I can.

“The Liberal Party threw everything at us. Everything. 
And we are standing here to celebrate.

“We campaigned on truth. We campaigned on honesty. We campaigned with good faith. 
We didn’t go down into the gutter, we rose above.

“And we might not have a minority government, but I’m pretty sure we can pull some levers.

“This has been incredibly difficult, really hard but we did it.”

Several Liberal election posters were also damaged and stolen by vandals. An 18-year-old man has been charged withover the theft of Liberal posters.