Derryn Hinch, Labor lose out as Victorian Senate spots are finalised

Derryn Hinch and a Labor senator have officially lost out as the final election result is confirmed.

Derryn Hinch failed in his bid to be re-elected to the Senate. Picture: Gary Ramage

Radio star Derryn Hinch and a Victorian Labor senator have officially lost out on Senate spots as the final results from the federal election come in.

The Coalition has won three senate seats in total in Victoria, a state they were widely expected to perform badly in before the federal election. St Kilda-based Liberal David Van has joined re-elected senators James Patterson and recently promoted assistant minister Jane Hume.

“It’s an honour to be elected to represent Victoria in the Senate for the next six years,” Mr Van said today.

“I’m looking to bring the interests of the quiet Australians to our Parliament. Regardless of your background, religion or where you live in our great state, the values of Robert Menzies and the Liberal Party have universal application.

“I want to listen to the concerns of those quiet Australians, and ensure that we continue to engage with their communities as we return to Parliament in July.”

Sitting ALP senator Gavin Marshall has been pipped to a senate spot by Mr Van and re-elected Greens senator Janet Rice.

The Opposition had aimed to win up to eight lower house MPs and three senators at the federal election, off the back of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’s landslide state election win in November.

But the party only managed to gain two seats — Corangamite and Dunkley — which were already notionally Labor due to a redistribution of federal boundaries, while the Liberals increased their margins in key target seats like Casey and Deakin.

Labor’s Jess Walsh will enter parliament alongside re-elected Victorian ALP senator Raff Ciccone.

Senator Hinch has missed out on returning to the Senate but The Australian’s Media Diary has reported he could be set to return to Sky News in a leading role. His Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party won several upper house seats in the last Victorian state election.

The Victorian senate results mean all seats up for grabs at last month’s federal election are now confirmed and the writs could return as early as Friday.

Yesterday, Labor recorded its worst Senate result since 1949 in the battleground state of Queensland, securing just one seat after One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts and the Greens’ Larissa Waters managed to win the fourth and sixth spots.

Outgoing Labor senator Chris Ketter, who was given the usually winnable second spot on the party’s Queensland Senate ticket behind Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union organiser Nita Green, has lost his seat in a major blow to the ALP.

The failure to win two upper house seats in the Sunshine State reflects Labor’s poor showing in the House of Representatives, where the party took just six of 30 Queensland electorates — a net loss of two.