Hard-working local member, Kate Washington, has been given a strong vote of confidence by the electors of Port Stephens and will serve as a member of the new Chris Minns Labor Government.
Votes cast locally closely matched the pattern of voting across the whole Port Stephens Electorate with Kate winning an outright majority of first preference votes cast at the Community Hall. The ABC had (surprisingly) identified Port Stephens as one of Labor's marginal seats to watch - but then didn't!
With more counting still to come, at 11pm on Election Day Kate has 70.8% of the two party preferred vote and the seat is certainly no longer marginal. Her primary vote in the Cove has grown at each election: from 38%, in 2015 when she was first elected, up to 48% in 2019 - and this year her primary vote in the Cove reached an amazing 57%.
Perhaps the most surprising result of the night is that the Liberal Party, with 17% first preferences in the Cove, only narrowly pipped One Nation with 16%. The result was somewhat similar in several other booths although the electorate-wide figures on Saturday night were 20% Liberal to 14% One Nation.
