LABOR has comfortably retained the seats of Carrum, Mordialloc, and Frankston on its way to a decisive election win.
The state government has been returned with a majority in the lower house. It is projected to retain its “sandbelt” seats despite a swing towards the Liberals in each.
Carrum MP Sonya Kilkenny has won a third term in office. As of 28 November she leads Liberal candidate Bec Buchanan by 10.5 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis.
In Carrum the Greens have so far received 7.1 per cent of the first preference vote. The Freedom Party have secured 4.1 per cent. All other candidates have received less than three per cent of first preference votes.
Kilkenny thanked her supporters on social media after her comprehensive win. “Thank you for re-electing me as your member of parliament for the Carrum district. I am forever grateful. I will keep delivering what matters to our local community today, tomorrow and every day after that,” she said.
During the last term Kilkenny was made minister for corrections, youth justice, and fishing and boating.
There was a 5.7 per cent swing towards the Liberals in Mordialloc, but it wasn’t enough to topple sitting MP Tim Richardson. With 76.7 per cent of the vote counted, Richardson remains 7.6 per cent of Liberal Phillip Pease on the two-party-preferred count.
As of 28 November Greens candidate for Mordialloc Daniel Lessa has received 9.7 per cent of the first preference vote. Independent Sarah O’Donnell has received nearly 8 percent of first preferences.
Labor is pledging to remove all level crossings on the Frankston train line by 2029. Its election also secures the future of the suburban rail loop, which is proposed to start from a new Cheltenham Station at Sir William Fry Reserve.
During this term, supporters of the sandbelt parklands proposal will look to the state government to fulfill its promise to create the project. The state government committed to the chain of parks prior to its 2018 re-election. In November the state government confirmed it had purchased 83 hectares of land in Heatherton and Clayton South to create linked parks.
In Mordialloc, the state government promised to spend $12.6 upgrading Mordialloc College and $2 million on dredging Mordialloc Creek if re-elected. Mordialloc MP Tim Richardson told The News it was an “honour” to win another term.
“Having served our community for the past eight years as the member for Mordialloc, I have a proven track record of working hard each and every day to make our community a better place to live. Together with the community, we’ve achieved so much – whether it’s upgrading our schools and kinders, delivering road and rail projects like level crossing removals on the Dandenong and Frankston lines and the Mordialloc Freeway, free TAFE and free kinder, and creating thousands of great new local jobs. But there’s always more to do, and I’ll keep working with our wonderful residents and community to make Kingston and Greater Dandenong even better for the future,” Richardson said.
“We will continue to deliver road and rail infrastructure – including making the Frankston and Dandenong lines level crossing free, to reduce traffic congestion in our community and make it safer for cars and pedestrians. We’ll also continue our work to deliver the Metro Tunnel, to deliver more trains more often in our community, as well as our work on the suburban rail loop to connect our area to business, education and health hubs across Melbourne. And, we will start work on the airport rail, making our airport more accessible to our community.”
Richardson says that the state government will help with the cost of living by introducing free kinder for three and four year olds, making more TAFE courses free, and re-establishing the State Electricity Commission. He also says that another 24,000 healthcare workers will be hired and Monash Medical Centre and Dandenong Hospital will receive major upgrades.
In other nearby seats, Labor MP Paul Edbrooke won another four year term in Frankston. Clarinda MP Meng Heang Tak comfortably retained his seat. He leads Liberal Anthony Richardson by more than 6000 votes so far – an 11.5 per cent margin.
Liberal MP Brad Rowswell is projected to retain Sandringham, and Pauline Richards will hold onto Cranbourne for Labor. Labor MPs Gabrielle Williams and Nick Staikos easily retained Dandenong and Bentleigh respectively.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 30 November 2022