News / Federal Election
Khalil is victorious in battle of Wills
Ratnam vows: “I’ll be back”
Mark Phillips
LABOR’S Peter Khalil has pulled off a stunning win to return to Canberra for a fourth time as the MP for Wills.
Khalil claimed victory late on Thursday afternoon after Greens’ challenger Samantha Ratnam phoned him to concede defeat.
Confirmation of his win came after several days of counting showed Khalil pulling away from Ratnam after finishing slightly ahead on election night on Saturday.
At 6pm on Thursday, Khalil was sitting on 52.1% of the vote after preferences.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, Khalil said he looked forward to delivering on commitments made by Labor during the election campaign.
“It is a great privilege to represent this community, now stretching from Fawkner and Glenroy in the north, to Carlton North and Fitzroy North in the south,” he said.
“We faced what could have been a tough redistribution last year which halved our margin. My team and I worked hard to not only introduce myself to new parts of the electorate, but to share Labor’s message with the existing suburbs.
“Being a Labor MP within a re-elected Albanese Labor Government, I am excited to continue advocating and delivering for our community.”
In a brief reference to his vanquished rival, Khalil said it had taken “courage” for Ratnam to leave State Parliament as Leader of the Greens to run for Federal Parliament.
Based on 82.3% of votes counted by 7pm on May 12. Source: Australian Electoral Commission
In a video posted to social media, Ratnam expressed pride in what she described as “this historic campaign”, which was the largest and best resourced ever mounted by the Greens in a federal electorate.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get over the line this time, but we got very, very close,” she said.
“At these moments, it’s sometimes hard to hold onto hope, but I’m holding onto hope and I would encourage you to hold onto hope too. Because we don’t have the luxury of giving up.”
Ratnam said her immediate priority would be to spend more time with her four-year-old daughter Malala, and to return to employment as a social worker, but she signalled her political career that began as a local councillor 13 years ago was not over.
“It’s not the end, it’s just the beginning of this next chapter. And if there’s one thing I promise you, it’s that I’ll be back,” she said.
By the close of counting on Sunday night, Khalil led the primary vote with 35.9%. Ratnam’s primary vote was 35.4%, while Kidney was on 12.6%.
Just over 81% of votes have now been counted in Wills. Khalil has secured 36.1% of primary votes, a swing against him of just 0.3%. Ratnam has had a swing in her favour of 2% for 34.8% of primary votes.
Liberal candidate Jeff Kidney has got 13% while Socialist Alliance’s Sue Bolton had the largest swing of anyone of 5.3% to win 8.1% of first preferences.
Ratnam made a clean sweep of all 12 booths in Brunswick, winning 41.3% of first preference votes, including six booths where she secured more than 45%.
On a two-candidate basis, she had 55.7% of votes in Brunswick.
But outside of Brunswick (excluding postal votes), Labor has held sway with 36.5% of first preferences, and 53.2% of the two-candidate vote.
Khalil’s win comes despite a brutal campaign in which he was often attacked over the Albanese government’s perceived failure to take a strong stance against the Israeli invasion of Gaza – an accusation that Khalil rejected.
In his victory statement, Khalil called out “violence, intimidation and threats” towards him and his staff which forced his office to be closed in the final days of the campaign.
“Our democratic process should be conducted peacefully, and I want to thank the majority of candidates who ran a respectful and positive campaign,” he said.
“Our democracy is precious, and we all have an obligation to protect it from intimidation and violence.”
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