LIBBY Coker has held the seat of Corangamite for Labor as her party recorded a stunning victory at Saturday’s Federal election.<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday the results showed a decisive win for Ms Coker over Liberal candidate Stephanie Asher.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“What I really want to see is more care and compassion in government.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s our night tonight, but I really wanted to say thank you so much to all of you,” she said.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
She also thanked her family, donors, and Liberal politicians including Sarah Henderson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat an amazing person, just an absolute machine, she has worked tirelessly for us,\u201d Ms Asher said of Ms Henderson.<\/p>\n
While the Liberals lost government, Ms Henderson retained her senate seat, with the party receiving at least two quotas.<\/p>\n
Along with Corangamite, Ms Henderson had worked with the Liberal candidates in several other seats and she acknowledged their campaigns.<\/p>\n
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,\u201d Ms Henderson said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019d made a 3.39 per cent gain on primary votes to be more than 13,000 ballots ahead […]<\/p>\n