STEWART CLAIMS CLIFFHANGER WIN Voters have put me on notice, says poll victor
SCOTT Stewart has retained the seat of Townsville by just 214 votes, acknowledging the narrow win meant voters had put him on notice.
Mr Stewart declared victory in Townsville yesterday after scooping 14,189 votes after preferences were distributed, compared to LNP candidate Casie Scott who secured 13,795.
The Labor MP held on to his electorate with just 50.38 per cent of the vote after scrutineers thoroughly counted the marginal seat to avoid the possibility of a recount.
Mr Stewart said he had a lot of work in front of him.
“People have trusted Labor to get back in and to do this job,” he said.
“The people of Townsville City have said ‘ we will now trust you but we are now putting you on notice’, because of the closeness of the results.”
Mr Stewart said among the priorities of generating jobs and delivering water security, Labor would “work day and night” to make sure juvenile crime was reduced.
“There’s a real push against the two majors ( political parties),” he said. “We’ve seen that at the state and federal level.
“I am going to work twice as hard as I did in the first term.”
When asked whether any ministry positions had been discussed for Townsville, Mr Stewart said it was too early.
He also said Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk was still waiting for a phone call from Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls to concede defeat.
“The Premier has certainly got the numbers,” he said.
“The preferential system was a new system at the state level. I think that the need to educate people around the state system about preferences is part of the work we need to go through next time.”
Meanwhile, his LNP challenger Ms Scott called a press conference yesterday to congratulate Mr Stewart.
“It was a hard- fought campaign,” she said. “It came down to the wire with just a couple hundred votes in it.”
Ms Scott, who has campaigned for almost 11 months without earning an income, said she would go home and hug her daughter.
“I’ve got about two weeks left in the bank,” she said.
“I need to look for work and find paid employment – that’s an absolute priority moving forward so I can put food on my table for my daughter.”
When asked whether she would consider a future in politics, Ms Scott said thinking about politics was a lot like childbirth. “Directly after, you don’t want to think about it and you probably can’t fathom thinking about it for a very long time,” she said.
The Electoral Commission of Queensland was yet to officially declare the seats of Mundingburra and Thuringowa last night despite Labor already claiming victory for incumbent MPs Coralee O’Rourke and Aaron Harper.