BARKER MP Tony Pasin has gained the biggest swing in Australia, winning 119 of the electorate’s 120 polling places and securing a 14.3pc increase in votes towards the Liberal Party.
With 80pc of votes counted, Mr Pasin was comfortably re-elected at Saturday night’s Federal Election on first preferences alone (57.9pc).
The result was the highest primary vote for a Barker MP since 1996.
The landslide win follows a significant investment across the South East, including the Federal Government’s $15m commitment to the Mount Gambier Community and Recreation Hub, the biggest community infrastructure project in the city’s history.
After suffering losses at the Mount Gambier west, park, north and east polling places in 2016, Mr Pasin reclaiwwwwmed all four booths, claiming more than 50pc of first preference votes at the McDonald Park Primary and Mount Gambier High School voting sites.
Although postal and absentee ballots are yet to be processed, Mr Pasin has seen massive gains in his primary vote in a majority of booths, including a 27pc swing in Nangwarry, which he lost to Nick Xenophon Team candidate James Stacey at the last election.
The re-elected MPs biggest success was in Furner, where he gained a 12pc swing towards him and received a primary vote of 87.5pc.
He also saw a monster swings in Compton, Yahl and Suttontown, winning all booths on first preference votes.
Mr Pasin said he was thrilled to have such strong support from Limestone Coast constituents.
“I have done my best to advocate for the region and I proud of being able to deliver some key projects for the region over the years and I think this result shows the people of the Limestone Coast have faith in my ability to get results,” he said.
“The Morrison team have good policies that will benefit the South East, such as supporting the Forestry industry to grow and employ more people across the supply chain.
“I have worked hard to be a strong advocate for Barker communities across the electorate including being a voice for our forest and forest products industry that is a pillar of our local economy.”
As of print, Labor’s Mat O’Brien currently has 21.3pc of first preference votes, an increase of 5pc from the 2016 poll.
For the first time in six years, the Greens polled third in the battle for Barker, with candidate Rosa Hillam doubling the party’s primary vote to 6.6pc.
She was followed by United Australia Party candidate and Mount Gambier resident Bert Bacher, who placed fourth in the field with 5.8pc of first preferences.
The Animal Justice Party’s first tilt at Barker saw Karen Eckermann poll 2.7pc of primaries so far, while National Party repeat candidate is currently sitting on 2.6pc – the party’s worst result since 1998.
However, the biggest defeat of the night went to the rebranded Centre Alliance, whose vote collapsed to just under 3pc after only gaining 2609 of Barker’s 95,609 primary votes.
Centre Alliance candidate Kelly Gladigau saw a vote drop of 25pc across the electorate, with significant and devastating losses in the south of the sprawling electorate.
Ms Gladigau suffered huge losses at all Mount Gambier booths, losing around 30pc of votes at each of the polling stations.
Across the state, former Kingston resident and Liberal MP Nicolle Flint also retained South Australia’s most marginal seat, Boothby, with current polling showing a lead of 2183 votes.
In the Senate, Liberal Senators Anne Ruston and David Fawcett, as well as Labor incumbent Alex Gallacher and newcomer Marielle Smith, have been elected.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and South Australian Liberal vice-president Alex Antic are also likely to be elected.
The Coalition was on track to win in its own right at the Saturday polls, with election analyst Antony Green predicting a 77 seat win.
76 seats are needed to gain government.
