Federal election 2025: Lethlean concedes defeat in Bendigo, Monash still undecided

Liberal candidate Mary Aldred is off to Canberra, having won one of the last seats to be called in the federal election.

Liberal candidate Mary Aldred has been projected as the winner of the Monash electorate, after a 10-day wait due to a complex preference count.

While Ms Aldred was a clear winner on first preferences with more than 30 per cent of the primary vote, a relatively even three-way split in the race for second place ensured a drawn-out preference count.

ABC election analyst Antony Green called Monash for Aldred, one of the few remaining seats to be declared, replacing outgoing independent MP Russell Broadbent, who ran as an independent.

Ms Aldred is set to claim a margin of roughly 4 per cent against Labor candidate Tully Fletcher, although the official result is yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, Bendigo will remain in the hands of Labor MP Lisa Chesters despite the National Party throwing everything at the central Victorian seat during the federal election.

Nationals candidate Andrew Lethlean conceded defeat to Ms Chesters on Friday as the Australian Electoral Commission’s two candidate preferred margin swung further into the incumbent Labor MP’s favour.

On Monday, Ms Chesters was leading with 51.33 per cent of two-candidate preferred votes, against Mr Lethlean’s 48.67 per cent.

The Bendigo publican was behind a swing of more than 8 per cent against Ms Chesters, bucking a nationwide trend in support of the Labor Party and turning what was a “safe” seat for the party into a decidedly marginal one.

Mr Lethlean said a truly successful campaign would have been to claim the electorate for the Nationals, but he was honoured by the level of support her received from voters.

The Nationals candidate for Bendigo, Andrew Lethlean, says he is proud to push the once safe Labor electorate into marginal territory.

“I gauge winning on success but we have had the largest swing against Labor in the country, which was nice, but obviously not the result we wanted,” he said.

Mr Lethlean put the strong result for the Nationals Party down to support for a local business owner, a growing frustration with the Labor Party “taking the regions for granted, and an incumbent who has become complacent. After 12 years, the regions were feeling left behind.”

Labor described the Nationals campaign for Bendigo as “cashed-up”, spruiking a budget of between $2m and $3m, but Mr Lethlean rubbished these figures.

The Weekly Times understands the campaign budget was in the order of $500,000, but significant focus was shifted to the electorate following the launch of Mr Lethlean’s campaign in late January alongside then Nationals leader David Littleproud, deputy leader Perin Davey, leader of the party in the Senate Bridget McKenzie and a host of other notable federal and state Nationals MPs.

Deakin University politics expert Geoff Robinson said the Bendigo result showed localised campaigning can make all the difference in individual seat results.

“I’m sure both the Liberal and National parties will be looking at Bendigo was interest to examine why they succeeded or at least received a huge swing in their favour when the rest of the country was swinging Labor’s way,” he said.

In Wannon, incumbent Liberal Dan Tehan rounded out his keenly watched campaign with a slight swing in his favour of 0.12 per cent.

Mr Tehan has endured a wild ride in the past week, from fears about losing his job to former ABC radio presenter and independent candidate Alex Dyson, to retaining Wannon and being named as a possible contender for the Liberal Party leadership.