Red wash

LABOR has tightened its grip around Ballarat on the back of a statewide swing towards the party following Saturday’s state election.

Despite predictions from all sides the result was going to be close, Juliana Addison and Michaela Settle cruised to victory in Wendouree and Buninyong respectively, with near 20 per cent two-party preferred margins at the time of publication.

Both electorates recorded significant swings away from the Liberal Party and will now be considered safe ALP seats.

In Ripon on Ballarat’s north-western fringe, the swing was nowhere near the statewide average, with Labor’s Sarah De Santis only managing less than one per cent on a two-party preferred split.

That hyper-marginal seat is still on a knife edge as less than 100 votes separate Ms De Santis and Liberal incumbent Louise Staley with the lead swapping back and forth.

Unlike in Ripon, the decision on Wendouree and Buninyong was clear about 90 minutes after polls closed and Ms Addison and Ms Settle triumphantly entered Ballarat Trades Hall to rapturous cheering and applause.

“It’s an honour,” Ms Addison said. “This is my home town, this where I was born, this where I’ve grown up and now I get to represent my community. It’s the greatest honour and I will not take it for granted.

“They community of Ballarat has said they like what the Andrews Government is doing. They like our infrastructure, they like our spending on schools, they like our investment in health. We’ve got more to do, this just says to me we need to keep doing what we’re doing.”

When it comes to priorities, Ms Settle said delivering on campaign promises and engaging with the electorate was going to be foremost in her outlook.

“We announced $5 million for Sebastopol and I really want to get out there in the community and start talking to people about what they need,” she said.

Despite ongoing attempts to drag Ms Settle into what had become known as the ‘red shirt scandal’ and a bunfight over Liberal Party preferencing deals, she rejected the idea that the Buninyong campaign was divisive.

“It wasn’t a divisive campaign at all,” she said.

“Andrew [Kilmartin, the Liberal candidate] and I spent a lot of time on pre-poll together and I think that he ran a good and clean campaign.”

The bad news for the Coalition didn’t end with defeat in the Legislative Assembly as Ballarat based upper house member Joshua Morris seems set to lose his seat despite the party pulling in about 1.75 quotas in Western Victoria Region.

Few, if any preferences were flowing to Mr Morris.

At the time of publication it looked like the Labor Party would see both Jaala Pulford and Gayle Tierney return to the upper house while the Liberals got up newcomer Beverley McArthur who was placed first on the Coalition ticket, above Mr Morris.

The two remaining spots look to go to Andy Meddick from the Animal Justice Party and Stuart James Grimley representing Derryn Hinch Justice Party. Both polled less than four per cent on primary votes.

Re-elected lower house MP for Polwarth, Richard Riordan, who is now essentially the closest Coalition MP to Ballarat, lashed the preference swapping that brought down Mr Morris.

“The big disappointment in the results across our region is… we look set to get an Animal Justice Party up,” he said. “It’s a real concern with the corruption in the preference swap… that a party that has as its platform the end of livestock production and dairy industry in our region to be representing our region is a terrible outcome.”

“Josh has not lost because he hasn’t worked hard, Josh has been caught in the crossfire.”