Liberal candidate Nicole Werner secures resounding win in Warrandyte by-election
A victorious Nicole Werner has paid tribute to her migrant parents, telling them her success is the product of ‘everything they sacrificed and dreamed of.’
The Liberal Party has secured a resounding victory in the byelection for the Victorian state seat of Warrandyte, in a result Opposition Leader John Pesutto says should tell “Liberals across the country” the party can win.
In the absence of a Labor opponent, Nicole Ta-Ei Werner, a former charity worker, youth pastor and staffer for Senator Jane Hume, has secured a primary vote of 57.38 per cent, with more than three quarters of the vote counted on Sunday morning.
Two-party-preferred, Ms Werner is sitting on 71.10, compared with Greens candidate and local deputy mayor Tomas Lightbody 28.90 per cent.
Mr Lightbody has notched up a primary vote of 18.55 per cent, compared with Labour DLP candidate Cary De Wit on 5.70 per cent, and independent Maya Tesa on 4.15 per cent.
The remaining eight candidates are on track to lose their deposit after polling less than 4 per cent of the vote.
Warrandyte, in Melbourne’s outer north east is being vacated by Baillieu-Napthine government minister and sometime leadership hopeful Ryan Smith, after 16 years in parliament.
Mr Pesutto said the people of Warrandyte had spoken for their fellow Victorians.
“They have said that they’re tired of the corruption, they have said that they are tired of the incompetence, they have become tired of the branch stacking, the misuse of taxpayer dollars and the breach of faith with the Victorian people. That’s what they’ve said tonight,” the Liberal leader told party faithful gathered at the North Ringwood Bowls Club.
“We know that the people of Warrandyte have been the voice of all Victorians tonight in saying that they are tired of the cost of living increases, they are tired of their jobs being taxed. They are tired of their rents being taxed. They are tired of their schools being taxed. They want to be heard. They want to be respected. They want to be looked after, and the people of Warrandyte have done their fellow Victorians a great service tonight, because they have helped turn the tide in this state.”
Asked whether the victory came as a relief, given suggestions from some Liberals that a poor result could have seen him face a leadership spill, amid internal tensions over his expulsion from the parliamentary party of upper house MP Moira Deeming, Mr Pesutto said the win pointed to bigger wins to come.
“What we all need to realise is that on these numbers, we win government, and I say to Liberals, and I know my Nationals colleagues share this with me: You work hard, you focus, you can win, by earning the trust and confidence of the people,” he said.
“What tonight has shown is that when we bring our A game, we win, and on these numbers two things are certain: if we can keep doing this work, to party members everywhere, and to Liberals right across the country, we can win. We can win, and for Labor, an earthquake going off tonight.”
Ms Werner said she was “absolutely overwhelmed with gratitude” for the opportunity to represent the people of Warrandyte.
“Thank you for entrusting me with this honour. I’m humbled that you would elect me and put your confidence in me and I recognise the responsibility that lays ahead. To you I’d say this: I will do my best to give my all every single day, to fight for you and to serve our wonderful community,” she said.
Ms Werner, 32, who ran unsuccessfully in the neighbouring seat of Box Hill in November, paid tribute to her Malaysian Chinese immigrant parents, Belinda and Peter Yow.
“Mum was born, as many of you know, to an illiterate mother, who due to poverty was never sent to school. My grandmother‘s sacrifice paved the way for my mum to be able to move to Australia at 22 years of age to join my dad in 1988,” Ms Werner said.
“They worked hard and did everything that they could to get ahead. Mum tells me this story of being pregnant with me, in 1991, in case you were wondering: a new migrant full of hope and selfless ambition as a first time mother, she would say to me in her belly, ‘I want you to be a leader, and I want you to change the world’.”
“Today, my success is their success, everything that they sacrificed and dreamed of, so thank you Mum and Dad.”
Ms Werner won a hotly contested preselection in June to become the Liberal candidate.
Mr Smith held the seat with a 4.2 per cent two-party-preferred majority at the November state election, recording a primary vote of 47.3 per cent, compared with 33.2 for Labor and 11.7 for the Greens.
Other candidates in Saturday’s by-election included representatives of the Sustainable Australia Party, Freedom Party, Victorian Socialists, Family First, and five relatively low profile independents.
Located immediately north of the Eastern Freeway, the seat of Warrandyte straddles the Yarra River on Melbourne’s leafy outskirts, taking in suburbs including Doncaster East, Donvale, Ringwood North, Warrandyte, Park Orchards, Warranwood, Wonga Park and Chirnside Park.
While suburbs such as Donvale and Park Orchards traditionally poll strongly for the Liberals, tree-changer suburbs in the electorate’s northwestern pocket often have a high Greens vote, and booths in the seat’s southwestern corner have favoured Labor at recent elections.
Ms Werner grew up just outside the Warrandyte electorate, on the other side of the Eastern Freeway, but attended Chinese school there, and formerly worked as a youth pastor for the Planetshakers evangelical megachurch.
Ms Werner joined the Liberals during the pandemic, citing frustration over the impact Melbourne’s lockdowns had on the clientele of the Planetshakers-affiliated food bank she was running at the time.
She has close ties across factions, with her campaign launch for Box Hill co-hosted by upper house deputy leader and Pesutto loyalist Matt Bach, as well as staunch conservative Bev McArthur.
Mr Lightbody, 25, works as a university tutor and urban planning consultant and is currently deputy mayor of Manningham Council.
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