Anthony Albanese claims ‘ugly win’ was all good despite swing in Eden-Monaro by-election

Anthony Albanese hailed ‘an against-the-odds victory’ for Labor in Eden-Monaro after a campaign involving 14 candidates.

Labor candidate for the seat of Eden-Monaro Kristy McBain, left, and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese in Merimbula, NSW. Picture: AAP

Anthony Albanese has blamed Labor’s drop in primary vote in the marginal NSW seat of Eden-Monaro on the large number of candidates contesting the by-election, insisting his party had clinched “an against-the-odds victory”.

Senior Labor right frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon labelled the election result “a bit of an ugly win for us” after the party’s primary vote fell about 3 per cent and it lost significant ground in towns such as Queanbeyan, Bungendore, Tumut and Cobargo.

While Labor MPs were nervous on Saturday night and did not claim victory until Sunday, an upbeat Opposition Leader said he had won a by-election in difficult circumstances.

Labor’s candidate Kristy McBain called the election from her home town of Merimbula on Sunday afternoon but Liberal candidate Fiona Kotvojs had yet to concede.

Mr Albanese listed the retirement of the electorate’s popular former Labor MP Mike Kelly, the by-election being held in the middle of a pandemic, Liberal candidate Fiona Kotvojs being a seasoned advocate after contesting two elections and being outspent by the Liberal Party as factors that had worked against his party.

Asked if he was worried Labor’s primary vote was down and the Liberal Party’s primary vote had increased by about 1 per cent, Mr Albanese responded: “There were 14 candidates in this election. When you have more candidates you have a drop.

“What’s extraordinary here is that given the circumstances that we’ve achieved this result. It’s a very favourable result for us.”

Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor, whose electorate of Hume neighbours Eden-Monaro, said results in Queanbeyan — with swings towards the Liberals of more than 10 per cent in some booths — was “really striking”.

“It was blue-collar Queanbeyan, tradies, blue-collar workers, we smashed it. This is what Labor should be worried about, their base just keeps moving from underneath them,” Mr Taylor said.

Mr Fitzgibbon acknowledged Labor needed to lift its primary vote but said Mr Albanese understood that and was never going to achieve it at the Eden-Monaro by-election.

The opposition agriculture and resources spokesman said it was never in doubt Mr Albanese would take the party to the next federal election.

“This (the by-election) was always going to be a closely run thing,” Mr Fitzgibbon told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“He inherited a broken Labor Party after the 2019 election. Trust in the Labor Party in the broader electorate had collapsed.

“He very quickly, having been elected unopposed, set upon a rebuilding process and quickly began to take the Labor Party back to the sensible centre ground.

“He had about six months to do that. Then the bushfires came along and then, of course, COVID-19 followed. So, you know, it takes a whole political cycle at least to rebuild that trust and to reshape the party’s policies, and he’s had about six months to do so.”

Ms McBain said her first priorities as the member for Eden-Monaro would be ensuring bushfire relief was rolled out to those who needed it, a plan for jobs and working on mobile phone black spots.

“Everybody wants to know what’s going to happen with JobKeeper and this region deserves answers,” she said.