By Parker McKenzie
Results in the electorate of Aston were far closer than predicted, with former Minister for Education Alan Tudge beating out Labor candidate Mary Doyle by a slim margin.
At the time of publishing, Mr Tudge leads Ms Doyle by 3.2 per cent, representing a 7 per cent swing to the Labor Party compared to 2019.
On Saturday May 4, less than three weeks before Election Day, Ms Doyle told the Star Mail she was struggling to fund her campaign.
“There’s a misconception that the Labor Party, because it’s a major party, gives me or each candidate money and that’s not actually true,” she said.
”I’ve actually put in money from my own savings account as well to kick in and to get those corflutes made up.”
Despite the lack of funding, the Labor Party performed above expectation in Aston.
Mr Tudge won with his smallest margin since first elected in 2010 and his lowest first preference vote in the five elections he has contested at 41 per cent. Ms Doyle saw an improvement of 2.9 per cent of primary votes compared to the 2019 election.
Pre-election polling commissioned by Newscorp was well off the mark for the electorate, predicting an easy victory for the Liberal Party and Alan Tudge at 60 per cent to Ms Doyle’s 40 per cent.
While part of the swing against Mr Tudge may be attributed to a national swing against the Coalition, it was larger than the overall result nationally. The controversy surrounding his affair with his former press secretary Rachelle Miller may have factored into the result and the Labor Party may be regretting not funding a larger campaign for the embattled MP’s seat.
The result — 53.2 per cent to 46.8 per cent in favour of Mr Tudge with 80.2 per cent of votes counted — raises the question of whether Aston could be in play for Labor when Australians next return to the polls.
