Coker officially wins Corangamite

LABOR’S Libby Coker is officially the new federal member for Corangamite.

The former Surf Coast Shire councillor was declared the winner of the seat over incumbent Liberal MP Sarah Henderson at the Australian Electoral Commission’s count centre in Colac on May 7.

Ms Coker – who also stood for the seat at the 2016 election – will move into Ms Henderson’s electorate office in Waurn Ponds, and said she welcomed the declaration.

“It means I can get on with the job of representing the many great communities in this electorate: from Leopold to Queenscliff, from Torquay to Apollo Bay and beyond.

“I’ll be advocating for all of those issues that you said were important to you during the election; better jobs, infrastructure, schools and training, healthcare and NDIS as well as clearer and more urgent action on the environment and climate change.

“I’ll continue to listen to your concerns and work with you to achieve real results – community by community, issue by issue.”

With 94.78 per cent of eligible votes counted and all polling places returned, Ms Coker had received 51.07 per cent of the two-party preferred vote – a margin of 2,165 votes and a swing of 1.04 per cent from the 2016 election.

Ms Coker received less first preference votes than Ms Henderson – 35.47 per cent to 42.33 per cent – but preference flows pushed the Labor contender in front.

Early indications on election night (May 18) were that Ms Coker had won the seat, but Ms Henderson did not concede until May 22 when it became clear the trend of postal votes was not in the Liberal MP’s favour.

There was an informal vote of nearly 4 per cent in Corangamite’s 111,638 eligible electors.