By Kerri-Anne Mesner
LABOR’S strong support in the western suburbs was escalated with a 6.1 per cent swing in the Maribyrnong electorate for newcomer Bill Shorten.
With 74.7 per cent of the vote counted from the 34 polling booths in the electorate, Mr Shorten was in the lead with 58.1 per cent of the primary votes.
The support for the former national secretary of the Australian Workers Union was echoed across the country with the national average swing being 5.8 per cent.
Mr Shorten said the 6 per cent swing was a great vote of confidence for him, particularly because he was the new person.
“It’s a privilege to be elected,” he said.
Mr Shorten said it seemed people were putting their trust and hope in Labor.
He said there had been two swings against Labor in the Maribyrnong electorate at the previous two elections, but there had been a renewed Labor presence in recent times.
“We’ve started to win back some of that confidence,” Mr Shorten said.
He said there had been strong poll outcomes at booths in Sunshine and St Albans in particular.
There are still 20,000 postal and absentee votes to be counted for the Maribyrnong electorate.
At the count on Sunday, Liberal candidate Ian Soylemez had received 30 per cent of the primary vote while Greens candidate Bob Muntz received 6.6 per cent. The Liberal Party’s tally in Maribyrnong meant a 7.2 per cent downwards swing, compared with the national average of 4.4 per cent.
Mr Shorten said he now looked forward to working with the State Government to improve education, transport, road infrastructure, rail infrastructure and community care, and to increase the number of respite beds.
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He said that during the campaign he had met a number of constituents who had issues that required immediate attention and he would look at helping those people as his first priority.
“I don’t want Maribyrnong to be better than anywhere else,” Mr Shorten said.
“I just don’t want anywhere else to be better than here.”
During the campaign, the Labor Party pledged $7 million towards a teaching facility at the Sunshine hospital, $900 million for the Western Ring Rd and $120 million for the West Gate Bridge.
Mr Shorten will join Labor MPs in Canberra on Thursday — including other Melbourne western suburbs MPs such as the new deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, Nicola Roxon and Brendan O’Connor — for caucus where a new ministry will be selected.
