Win some, lose some: status quo as Libs hold the line

In politics they say where NSW goes, so goes the nation, and it ­certainly seems the case given Saturday’s result.

Liberal candidate for Wentworth Dave Sharma with his family in Rose Bay on Saturday. Picture: AAP.

In politics they say where NSW goes, so goes the nation, and it ­certainly seems the case, given Saturday’s result.

Labor was hoping to hang onto the seat of Macquarie last night to give it a “status quo” result in NSW, having lost Lindsay to the Liberals but picking up Gilmore from them.

The only other change was that Liberal Dave Sharma appeared set to win Wentworth from independent Kerryn Phelps, but former prime minister Tony Abbott fell in Warringah to independent Zali Steggall.

The results mean Labor ­appears set to continue to hold 24 of 47 NSW seats, having missed the chance to take Liberal marginals Reid, Banks and Robertson, with swings towards the Liberals in the latter two.

One unsuccessful candidate told The Australian he had spoken to hundreds of voters during the campaign who said they could not stomach voting for Bill ­Shorten.

There was also internal criticism yesterday of the number of policies Labor released, rather than sticking to a couple of simple messages.

The two-party-preferred swing in NSW to the Coalition was 0.39 per cent, taking it to 50.92. The national vote was 50.96 per cent.

The count also had parallels to the NSW state election result in March.

Labor managed 33.3 per cent of the primary vote in that election and 33.9 per cent nationwide on the weekend.

As of last night, Labor’s Susan Templeman was at 50.4 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote in Macquarie, or about 625 votes ahead of Liberal Sarah Richards.

Labor won Gilmore by 2.8 per cent against Warren Mundine, a former national Labor president, and the Liberals’ Melissa McIntosh won Lindsay against former state Labor minister Di Beamer with a 6.2 per cent swing.

Mr Mundine said he had lost because of “disunity” within the Liberals in the local area.

Mr Sharma was last night leading Dr Phelps by more than 1000 votes, while Mr Abbott copped a flogging in Warringah, suffering an 12.7 per cent swing and losing the seat by 7.7 per cent.