By Callum Ludwig
Eildon district looks extremely likely to cement its status as a Liberal district status at this year’s State election, with Cindy McLeish set to serve her third consecutive term as Eildon MP and fourth consecutive term in Parliament.
At the time of print, Eildon had shown a 6.7 per cent swing towards the Liberal Party, after only a 1 per cent margin in the 2018 election.
Ms McLeish said she was very pleased with her own result but disappointed with the overall result for the Liberal party.
“There’s a lot of issues that the government needs to tackle that they’ve failed to tackle so far and I’ll be on to those as passionately and strongly as ever, I do really believe that I’m a good fighter for local issues and for local people,” she said.
“I’m still sitting on the wrong side of the chamber, but personally I had one of the biggest swings in my seat and while there was a statewide swing, it wasn’t big enough to convert to enough seats.”
With a Labor overall victory, despite the Liberal district victory, election promises made by Ms McLeish can not be guaranteed, such as:
Installing electronic 40-kilometre speed signs on the Warburton Highway outside Wesburn Primary School
$200,000 upgrade for the Yarra Junction shopping strip
$4 million for an upgraded pavilion at the Wesburn Junior Football Club
$2 million for upgrades to the Queens Park facilities in Healesville
Ms McLeish said there are a lot of the day-to-day issues that matter to individuals that need to be tackled.
“I was standing at the polling booths and even at early voting and had people coming up to me and mentioning things they wanted to speak to me about after the election. I do that all the time, advocate for people to the government and the ministers to try and improve things and get their issues sorted. Roads still need a lot of investment, camping on unlicensed river frontage is something people still want to see sorted and our parks like the Maroondah Dam have been neglected and need investment,” she said.
“People said to me, even people who didn’t vote for me, that I do a good job, which is nice to get that endorsement, even the couple of people handing out how-to-vote cards were talking to each other about the fact that I was a strong local member, which is encouraging. Regardless of how you vote, I will represent everybody.”
Labor candidate and runner-up Jane Judd came late to the election party, being only officially endorsed just weeks out from the election.
Ms Judd said despite the personal loss, she is over the moon with the re-election of the Andrews Labor Government.
“The Big Build can continue and we will have another 4 years of doing what really matters to improve where we live and work. I am happy that the Labor government can now get on with delivering the planned election commitments in Eildon such as upgrading Eildon Primary School and Kinglake West CFA and the support for three outstanding community groups: Healesville Core; Yarra Valley ECOSS and YAVA Gallery These groups are assured to receive their grants in the near future,” she said.
“I congratulate Cindy McLeish on retaining her seat. After 12 years, she was a hard competitor to beat. I especially want to thank all those who voted for me and the trust and support that that implied. It was a great honour to receive the endorsement of the ALP. I had a small but dedicated team of volunteers, too many to list, who helped me throughout the campaign and at the polling booths on election day. I owe each of you a debt of gratitude. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Being the local MP is a great privilege and a challenge I would have enjoyed immensely.”
At the time of print 67 per cent of votes in Eildon have been counted and while the result isn’t certain, Ms McLeish’s 4919 votes and 7.7 per cent lead have seen the ABC declare the district a Liberal seat.
At the time of print, these were the first preference results:
Liberal Cindy McLeish: 48.4 per cent, 15,437 votes
Labor Jane Judd: 28.8 per cent, 9189 votes
Greens Wil Mikelsons: 10.6 per cent, 3378 votes
Freedom Party Victoria Joshua Rusic: 3.4 per cent, 1079
Family First Victoria Tim Lacey: 3.3 per cent, 1053 votes
Animal Justice Chloe Bond: 3 per cent, 962 votes
Independent Kammy Cordner Hunt 1.5 per cent, 460 votes
Independent Robert Thornton: 1 per cent, 318 votes
