Staley seemingly out as Ripon flips

LABOR’S Martha Haylett looks to have won the seat of Ripon following the State election on Saturday night.

Despite a less-than-one percent swing towards incumbent Liberal candidate Louise Staley, Ms Haylett appeared to take victory with nearly 40 per cent of first preference votes at the time of publication.

With more than 60 per cent of Ripon votes processed, Ms Haylett looks to have secured the seat with about 400 votes ahead of sitting Liberal member, Louise Staley, who had a count of more than 11,000.

That equated to a two-party preferred count of 52.29 per for Ms Haylett.

Although too close to call during the Ballarat Labor Party’s campaign function, Ms Haylett said it was “very surreal” to see the odds so much in her favour.

“What surprised me about the results was the massive support across the board. There were booths that did interesting things that we didn’t necessarily expect,” she said.

“I think it reflects the hard work that we put in, knocking on so many doors, so many phone calls, so many markets… street walks with Jacinta Allan and Joe Helper, the whole lot.

“We ran such an amazing campaign and we had a power of people behind us. People have been wanting this for so long and I’m just happy that we’re almost there.

“[In terms of results,] some really exciting things are happening in the Loddon Shire, things are looking really good in Maryborough and elsewhere.”

Ripon was the subject of a small but significant boundary redistribution 18 months ago that saw places like Great Western, Stawell, Charlton and Donald removed while the north of Golden Plains Shire, along with Invermay, Mount Rowan and Skipton added.

Those changes made the seat nominally Labor with a 2.7 per cent margin.

Ms Staley has held Ripon since her election in 2014 and retained the seat by 14 votes during the 2018 State election.

Ms Staley was contacted for comment but declined to discuss Saturday’s result until all the votes were counted and the seat declared by the Victorian Electoral Commission.