It was eerily quiet at midday on election day at Hayes Park Public School, Kanahooka. Photo: Jen White.
Labor looks to have retained all three of the Illawarra and Shoalhaven’s electorates after early counting.
The ABC’s chief election analyst Antony Green called the election for Anthony Albanese’s government at 8:30 pm.
In Whitlam, first-time candidate Carol Berry was well ahead in the seat held by the retiring MP Stephen Jones.
Whitlam has been held by the Labor Party since it was created more than 40 years ago. Stephen Jones has held the seat since 2010.
Two hours after polls closed, with about 17 per cent of Saturday’s votes counted, Ms Berry was ahead of the Liberal’s Nathaniel Smith by 36.5 per cent to 27.6 per cent.
Ms Berry said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the result, but would cross her fingers until the final result was called.
“Today we travelled around to as many booths as we could – there’s about 45 booths in the electorate and we got to about 30 of them, which was fantastic,” she said.
All was quiet at Flinders Public School early on election day. Photo: Andrew Sutton.
In Cunningham, Labor’s sitting MP Alison Byrnes is set to easily retain the seat she has held since the last election in 2022.
With just over 38 per cent of the vote counted, Alison had 43.1 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Greens’ Jess Whittaker with 23.9 per cent and the Liberals’ Amanda Ivaneza with 21.3 per cent.
Many voting centres reported they were much quieter than previous elections, making election day voting a breeze for many residents.
In Gilmore, one of the nation’s most closely contested seats, sitting MP Fiona Phillips (38.2 per cent) was ahead of the Liberal’s Andrew Constance (29.6 per cent) with 26.4 per cent counted.
Ms Phillips retained the seat at the 2022 election by just 373 votes over Mr Constance.
The Independent’s Kate Dezarnaulds (8.4 per cent) was slightly behind the Greens’ Debbie Killian (8.9 per cent).
Ms Phillips said she had been humbled by the number of people who stopped her while she was visiting booths on Saturday to thank her for helping them or their loved one.
“This year, my team has knocked on nearly 22,000 doors and made more than 14,000 phone calls in an incredible effort right across Gilmore,” she said shortly after polls closed.
“It’s clear that local people want to see cost of living relief and they want to see investment in local healthcare services.
“That’s what I’ll be proud to deliver under a re-elected Albanese Labor Government.”
