Plibersek successfully defends her seat in tight election

Labor MP for the seat of Sydney, Tanya Plibersek, has survived the nation-wide swing against her party to retain her seat in an election as of yet undecided.

Ms Plibersek, who is due to give birth in October took 44.59 per cent of first preference votes in Sydney but suffered from a -4.62 swing, part of a move that has seen Labor lose 16 seats from swings in Queensland and NSW.

Her closest competition came from The Liberal Party’s Gorden Weiss who came in slightly ahead of Greens candidate Tony Hickey with 27.06 per cent of the vote to Tony Hickey’s 23.73 per cent.

Hickey enjoyed a substantial increase in his primary vote of 3.42 per cent, part of a nationwide swing to the Greens of 3.6 per cent.

Mr Hickey said in a statement the result was a good one for the Greens and positioned the party well for the March 2011 state election.

“[We] have doubled our representation in the federal parliament from five to ten and will hold the balance of power in the Senate, and potentially in the House of Representatives,” he said.

“The Greens success in Sydney and across Australia signals that Greens values are now mainstream values. We are the party of the future.”

Neither Labor or the Coalition had secured the 76 seats needed to form a government at the time of publication and it appears Melbourne Green MP Adam Bandt and four independent MPs will decide which party will form government.

By Simon Black