DESPITE her loss to the Nationals Melinda Pavey, Labor candidate Fran Armitage is delighted with the big swing toward her party in the Oxley electorate.
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As of yesterday morning, with 68.5 per cent of the votes counted, Mrs Armitage trailed new Member Melinda Pavey 39.3 per cent to 60.7 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
This equates to a swing to Labor of 18.1 per cent, more than double the overall state average swing toward the party of 8.4 per cent.
“I’m very pleased with the result,” she said.
“It certainly closes the gap to the Nationals and puts the seat in play in four years time.
“It isn’t the safe Nationals seat it used to be.”
Mrs Armitage said several factors swayed voters.
“In the south of the electorate and in Kempsey in particular it would be TAFE cuts and the leasing of the state's electricity infrastructure that had an impact," she said.
“In the north around Bellingen where I did particularly well it would have been the environment and in particular the Labor koala park policy which attracted the voters.”
Mrs Armitage said she had waged an active campaign which involved getting out and meeting as many of the voters as she possibly could.
She said that it was too early to speculate about whether she would run again in the next state election, due in 2019.
“It is a long time away and a lot can happen in four years so I can’t really say either way,” she said.
“I am just happy with the result we achieved on Saturday and whoever the candidate is in four years time has a base to build on.”