Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has gotten his birthday wish, with his “second favourite Jodie” clinching the win at the Dunkley by-election.
Jodie Belyea claimed the win just after 9pm on Saturday, just after the Liberal Party cautioned Labor against popping champagne just yet
Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said although Labor may have kept the seat, Dunkley had sent Mr Albanese a “strong message”.
“And it’s not happy birthday, it’s do something about the cost of living crisis,” she said.
“That’s the message the people of Dunkley have sent to this prime minister.”
The by-election followed the death of popular Labor MP Peta Murphy from breast cancer in December last year. Ms Murphy took the seat of the Liberals with a 6.3 per cent margin at the 2022 election.
By the time Liberal candidate Nathan Conroy conceded at 9pm on Saturday, thanking party faithful for their support, Sky News projected a swing towards him 3.8 per cent.
Addressing the party faithful in Frankston, Mr Conroy invoked former US First Lady Michelle Obama, saying “when they go low, we go high”.
“Although the result didn’t go our way tonight, it is a great opportunity to highlight the big swing that we had… next election, we are coming for Albanese and his government,” he said.
Mr Conroy said he and the Liberal Party had “left it all on the field”.
Ms Ley paid tribute to Mr Conroy.
“You have climbed every mountain, you are a class act. You have done Dunkley proud,” she said.
“You have done extraordinarily well.”
It wasn’t all bad news for Mr Conroy, sharing with the crowd he and his wife were expecting a second child.
“I don’t know when I had the time to do it, but I did it,” he said.
Mr Albanese took to X to congratulate Ms Belyea.
“Jodie ran a strong and positive campaign, and she’ll work hard every day as a champion for Dunkley in Canberra,” he said.
National president of the Labor Party, Wayne Swan, said the party’s victory reflected “a community hunger for leaders to bring Australia together, supporting a people under financial pressure while rejecting the politics of division over climate, race and gender”.
Of the more than 113,000 people enrolled to vote in the seat, at least 22,150 people had voted early and 21,900 had applied for a postal vote, the Australian Electoral Commission said. A total of 32 booths were open on Saturday from 8am. Counting of pre-poll and Saturday ballots began at the close of booths at 6pm.
On Friday, Prime Minister Albanese paid tribute to Ms Murphy who performed an “extraordinary” act of selflessness by recruiting Ms Belyea into the Labor Party after becoming unwell.
“We wish and this local community wishes that the by-election was not happening because Peta Murphy, at age 50, has gone from us far too soon,” he said on Friday.
“She had so much more to give, (she had) an extraordinary capacity to deliver for this local community, to deliver on such a broad range of issues.”
The by-election had been viewed as a litmus test for the government’s policies to address cost of living issues and Mr Albanese’s credibility following his broken promise on stage 3 tax cuts.
The government took every opportunity to promote how its revamped stage 3 tax cuts, which passed the parliament on Tuesday and come into effect on July 1, would help more people than the Coalition’s legislated plan which he had promised numerous times not to change.
The seat of Dunkley is seen as representative of more than a dozen other Middle Australia seats across the country that will decide the 2025 election, and the result will be closely analysed.
Dunkley was the third by-election since the May 2022 election.
Labor made history last year when it became the first government to win a byelection from an opposition since 1920.
The Liberals retained the Gold Coast seat of Fadden in a by-election caused by the resignation of former Morrison minister Stuart Robert, while a by-election will be held soon for former prime minister Scott Morrison’s safe Sydney seat of Cook.