General News
12 December, 2022
Labor gains seat of Ripon
A Labor member will return to the seat of Ripon for the first time since 2014 following Martha Haylett’s successful campaign, with the candidate declared victor last week. It brings an end to former Liberal member Louise Staley’s two terms in...
A Labor member will return to the seat of Ripon for the first time since 2014 following Martha Haylett’s successful campaign, with the candidate declared victor last week.
It brings an end to former Liberal member Louise Staley’s two terms in the seat, which came down to the wire at the previous state election in 2018, where Ms Staley held the seat by a margin of just 15 votes.
Ms Staley officially conceded defeat last Wednesday and on Thursday afternoon at the Tren Du Bourg Hall voting centre in Maryborough, Ms Haylett was declared the new Member for Ripon by the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC).
Speaking afterwards, Ms Haylett said she was excited to get underway.
“It feels like such a big responsibility. Now the real work begins. The last few weeks kind of felt like a surreal experience,” she said.
“So, it just feels exciting to get to work, because it’s been a year-long campaign. It’s a huge electorate so we have a lot of work to do connecting with 100 communities. But now, I’m just excited to get on with it and get to work and not waste a day.
“It will be the honor of my life to represent Ripon in the Victorian Parliament and in government and I’m just excited to get on with the job of doing what matters for our community.”
Following the distribution of voting preferences, Ms Haylett ended up with just under 53 percent of the vote while Ms Staley had 47 percent — a difference of just 2500 votes.
Under the first preference voting system, Ms Staley and Ms Haylett were separated by just 1000 votes.
Last year, the electoral boundaries for Ripon were updated, gaining parts of western and northern Ballarat from Wendouree District, while losing towns like Stawell and Donald.
Ms Haylett said she had expected another close election but was pleased to see a swing in Labor’s favour in Maryborough.
“I think everyone always knew it would be close. Obviously, there were boundary changes, we took in more of the outer areas of Ballarat because the population is just booming so much there,” she said.
“But seeing that we’ve got swings towards us in Maryborough, swings towards us in Ararat, swings towards us in the Loddon Shire — places that have always been in the Ripon electorate was fantastic.
“I think there was a really fantastic result in Maryborough, we got swings towards Labor in Maryborough, which was fantastic because I was really focused on Maryborough — I grew up around this area, I really connect with this town.
“I know that it deserves so much more into the future, new sporting facilities, more train services, cheaper train fares, all of these things. So now I’m in government, I’m around that decision making table to actually just get on and deliver these things for our communities.”
Over 45,000 votes were recorded in Ripon according to the VEC, making up 89 percent of the total number of enrolled voters, however more than six percent of these were informal votes, or votes that did not count due to being filled out incorrectly.