The seat of McMillan, considered a safe Liberal seat, saw a 5.86 per cent swing in Labor’s favour, after the counting of 77.09 per cent of the vote.
However it was not enough for a Labor win, with Liberal Russell Broadbent gaining 55.97 per cent of the two candidate preferred vote, to Labor’s 44.03.
Mr Broadbent said while he had never treated the seat as safe, he was very happy with the outcome of his election campaign.
“It never was a safe seat, I’ve always seen it as a marginal seat,” Mr Broadbent said.
Labor’s Chris Buckingham was proud of his party’s efforts in halving the electorate’s margin from 12 per cent.
“I’m feeling really happy about the way Labor has put down the foundations for winning the McMillan seat next time. I’m very pleased and now look at McMillan as a winnable or losable seat,” Mr Buckingham said.
“This will help the community get more attention from the government in the next two to three years, which was always the underlying cause of my campaign.”
Mr Buckingham said he would take some time to reflect on the campaign with his family before making any future political decisions.
“But I hope I run again. Pre-selection for Labor is a democratic process, but people locally and at a state level would be pretty pleased with the result here and know not to take anything for granted,” Mr Buckingham said.
“One of the reasons I ran for McMillan is I have a deep love and appreciation for this community and it’s been a really nourishing experience to be a leader in my own community.”
