By Andrew Cantwell
A significant shift in boundaries for the Federal seat of Bruce has had little impact, according to Saturday’s federal poll, with sitting member Julian Hill returned and retaining his ‘two candidate preferred’ majority of more than 57 per cent.
As of the latest count at 1.20am Sunday, Mr Hill had picked up 42.3 per cent of the primary vote, with the flow of preferences seeing him well over the line, recording just a 0.02 swing against overall.
Liberal candidate James Moody recorded 29.7 per cent of first votes cast, giving him a ‘two candidate’ tally of over 42.7 per cent after initial preferences.
However, voters sent a message to the major parties with both Labor and Liberal first preference votes down almost six per cent from the 2019 poll.
Greens candidate and former Greater Dandenong councillor Matthew Kirwen picked up about 9.5 per cent of primary votes, up almost 1.9 per cent.
But the real beneficiaries of the first-vote swing against the major parties were the United Australia Party, up 4.75 per cent to capture 8.85 per cent of primary votes; the Liberal Democrats, picking up 5.1 per cent of the primaries; and One Nation up 3.5 per cent to pick up over 4.5 per cent of first votes cast.
This will be Mr Hill’s third term in Bruce, having succeeded Labor’s Alan Griffin in 2016. Mr Griffin had held the seat for 20 years before retiring.
