Coker holds Corangamite

LIBBY Coker has held the seat of Corangamite for Labor as her party recorded a stunning victory at Saturday’s Federal election.

As of Tuesday the results showed a decisive win for Ms Coker over Liberal candidate Stephanie Asher.

She’d made a 3.39 per cent gain on primary votes to be more than 13,000 ballots ahead with 58.73 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, equating to a swing of 7.68 per cent compared to the 2019 election.

Ms Coker and Corio Labor Federal member Richard Marles, who also won his seat and was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister on Monday, addressed hundreds of jubilant supporters at a joint function at the clubrooms at Burdoo Reserve in Grovedale on Saturday night.

“I’ve taken a couple of turns to actually win Corangamite, and to win again, hopefully this evening, is a testament to both of us because we’ve been together on this journey,” Ms Coker said.

“And on the way, what we’ve done is we’ve spoken to people, we’ve listened to our communities, and we understand what you need to get ahead in your life.

“What I really want to see is more care and compassion in government.”

At the Liberal post-election function at the Grovedale Hotel, Ms Asher spoke in front of a much smaller crowd of her supporters and volunteers.

“It doesn’t look like it’s our night tonight, but I really wanted to say thank you so much to all of you,” she said.

“An amazing, amazing effort from all of the volunteers who put on a very strong local campaign. I’m very proud of what we did, we covered a lot of ground.”

She also thanked her family, donors, and Liberal politicians including Sarah Henderson.

“What an amazing person, just an absolute machine, she has worked tirelessly for us,” Ms Asher said of Ms Henderson.

While the Liberals lost government, Ms Henderson retained her senate seat, with the party receiving at least two quotas.

Along with Corangamite, Ms Henderson had worked with the Liberal candidates in several other seats and she acknowledged their campaigns.

I congratulate the extraordinary efforts of our Liberal candidates with whom I worked closely as patron senator, Stephanie Asher in Corangamite, Manish Patel in Corio, Ben Green in Ballarat, Darin Schade in Bendigo and John Fletcher in Gorton,” Ms Henderson said in a statement.

“I congratulate the Labor MPs in each of these seats on their re-election. I also thank my staff and our wonderful Liberal volunteers who worked so tirelessly during the campaign.”