Labor MP Lisa Chesters said her win at Saturday’s election was the party’s “best result for probably 50 years” in Bendigo.
With 75 per cent of votes counted as of 3pm Sunday, Ms Chesters led Liberal candidate Darin Schade 62 per cent to 38 per cent on two party preferred terms – representing a 3.25 per cent swing in Labor’s favour.
Ms Chester’s primary vote fell 0.5 per cent compared to the 2019 election, while the Liberals suffered a 5.29 per cent dip.
She described the result as “incredibly humbling” and made her “really proud”.
“It’s been a pandemic election but the feedback that we got from people was overwhelmingly in support of Labor’s agenda and a thank you, a tick, for the work that we did to support the community during the pandemic,” Ms Chesters said.
Greens candidate Cate Sinclair received 13 per cent of the primary vote, winning a 2.85 per cent swing in her favour, while One Nation’s Ben Mihail secured a 5 per cent primary vote.
Ms Chesters said her key priorities for the electorate would be ensuring the region secured the funding it had “really missed out” on under the Liberal government.
She also said infrastructure, climate change, healthcare, manufacturing and childcare were at the top of her list.
Ms Chester will also push her party to hold a review into the social security system to ensure welfare recipients get “a decent allowance so that they can afford to pay the basics”.
“A big thank you to the people of the Bendigo electorate, from Kyneton in the south up to Elmore in the north,” Ms Chesters said.
“This is Labor’s best result for probably 50 years and I am so proud and so excited that I now get to be a member of a government and that we’re going to really deliver for central Victoria.”
