Ten days after the polls closed, Liberal candidate Mary Aldred has claimed the seat of Monash.
And, after a long and complicated vote counting process, the two candidate preferred figures released today by the Australian Electoral Commission show the Liberal Party increasing its margin in Monash from 2.9 per cent after the 2022 election to almost 4.3 per cent this election.
ALP candidate Tully Fletcher contacted Ms Aldred at about 9pm last night to concede defeat.
Ms Aldred said it had been a long week while the AEC undertook its process and she was very pleased to finally have a result.
"I am tremendously humbled and privileged. I am going to get cracking straight away in standing up for our region.
"I want to have a strong voice to secure the infrastructure we need for Monash," she said.
And, Ms Aldred was thrown straight into things this morning, with her first job being a party room meeting in Canberra to elect new Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley.
She said it was pleasing to have two well credentialed candidates for the leadership battle in Ms Ley and Angus Taylor.
"Now we go forward as a united team and I look forward to playing a constructive tole to hold the Labor government to account," she said.
Ms Aldred said she was looking forward to hitting the ground running and "will work my heart heart for this region."
Asked if the long voting process had been frustrating, she said "after 538 days campaigning, what's another seven."
"It gave me a pause time to catch up on life admin," she said.
Two candidate preferred figures show Ms Aldred on 53,460 votes (54.32 per cent) and Mr Fletcher on 44,950 votes (45.68 per cent.)
Mr Fletcher said it had been an honour to stand as Labor's candidate.
"Our Monash campaign united Labor members, unions, volunteers, and voters behind our Albanese Labor Government's plan to build Australia's future.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to deliver the result we wanted this time.
"I fought this election because Monash has been taken for granted by Liberals for 20 years and that's long enough," Mr Fletcher said.
