By XAVIER SMERDON
WYNDHAM residents will continue to live within a safe Labor electorate despite a sizeable swing in favour of the Liberal Party at the weekend’s Federal election.
School principal Joanne Ryan succeeded her personal friend and former Prime Minister Julia Gillard as the new Member for Lalor.
At the time of reporting 77.3 per cent of the votes had been counted and Ms Ryan had managed to keep Lalor as a safe Labor seat, despite a 10 per cent swing against her in favour of Liberal’s Nihal Samara.
Ms Ryan told Star that she felt “incredibly privileged” to be elected as the Member for Lalor.
“I feel very humbled, privileged and ready to roll up my sleeves and represent the people of Lalor,” Ms Ryan said.
“I will be a really hard working local member and I will make sure that the voices of the people of Lalor are heard in Canberra.”
Ms Ryan said she felt like the swing against the Labor party in the electorate was more to do with the absence of Ms Gillard.
“Health and education have obviously been Julia’s priorities here,” she said.
“If you drive down the road and look at the work that’s going on at the Mercy Hospital, that’s Julia’s work. If you drive into Wyndham Vale and look at the super clinic, that’s Julia’s work. If you walk into any school and see what’s happening there, that’s Julia’s work.
“That’s what’s going to be the challenge for me, to fill those shoes and be someone who speaks with a really loud voice for Lalor.”
Ms Ryan said she was planning on spending her first day in the position at the football watching the Werribee Tigers play the Casey Scorpions with her family.
Ms Gillard took to social networking site twitter for the first time in 58 days to congratulate her replacement.
“Congrats to Joanne Ryan on her election as Member for Lalor. She’ll be a strong and articulate voice for a proud community we both love. JG,” Ms Gillard wrote to her almost half a million followers.
Ms Gillard also showed her class by congratulating both of her former opponents.
“A tough night for Labor. But a spirited fight by Kevin, Albo, George + the whole team. My thoughts are with you all,” she said.
“Congrats to Mr Abbott and Mr Truss for leading their parties to victory. I wish them and their teams well. It’s always an honour to serve.”
Labor managed to comfortably hold on to all five seats in the western suburbs despite the Liberal Party’s overall victory. After preferences Ms Ryan was still predicted to collect 62.1 per cent of the votes, a total of 48,304.
On first preferences she had actually suffered an 18 per cent swing against her, with the Liberals gaining 5.8 per cent on the amount of votes they received at the 2010 election.
But it was Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party that really surprised, with Candidate Joe Zappia predicted to pick up 5.9 per cent of the votes, the same as the Green’s Beck Sheffield-Brotherton.
