By Violet Li
Labor’s Cassandra Fernando has won her second term as the Minister for Holt.
She is appearing on track to harvest a higher share of the primary votes than in her last election in 2022.
At the time of the writing, almost 60 per cent of the votes have been counted, and Fernando has secured about 46 per cent of the primary votes, followed by Liberal’s Annette Samuel (23.7 per cent), Greens’ Payal Tiwari (12 per cent), One Nation’s Trevor Hammond (8.3 per cent), Family First’s Shane Foreman (5.1 per cent), and Legalise Cannabis’s Riley Aickin (4.7 per cent).
Fernando is projected to win about 65.57 per cent of the votes under the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC)’s two-candidate-preferred model, against Samuel’s 34.43per cent.
In the previous election, among eight candidates, Fernando gained 40.86 per cent of the primary votes and won the seat with a margin of 7.1 per cent after preferences.
Liberal has suffered a 5.68 per cent swing for one of the bluest booths in Holt: Pearcedale.
Among the 1517 formal votes, Samuel secured 50.3 per cent of them after preferences, against Fernando’s 49.7 per cent.
In the 2022 Election, the then-Liberal candidate gained 55.98 per cent of the after-preference votes.
Fernando celebrated the victory with her team on the election night, with the room erupting in cheers and applause.
Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards and Bass MP Jordan Crugnale were also present to witness the victory.
Emotions were at their highest among the crowd when the television projected that the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would lose his own seat.
Fernando addressed the crowd with excitement and tears and thanked her team members.
“I am deeply honoured and humbled to stand before you as the re-elected member for Holt,” she said.
“This is a community where I went to school, where I got my first job, I found my purpose, and standing up for people. Representing this community in our Federal Parliament has been the privilege of my entire life.
“It was a campaign built on fairness, equality, and more importantly, compassion.
“And the fundamental belief that no matter where you come from, what you look like, we all deserve a fair go.”
Talking with Star News, Fernando said she felt surreal, very blessed, and honoured to be able to represent the community for one more term.
She said her amazing team helped her navigate her pregnancy during the whole campaign.
“We were organised. We were staunch in what we wanted to do and to do it in a way that wouldn’t cause me any health issues, and they always made sure that my health came first.”
For Fernando, this election campaign was different from her last one as she was defending everything she had done in the last three years.
Speaking of her plan for the following three years, she said she would keep working hard to make sure that the community gets the infrastructure that they need.
“That’s one of my big priorities: infrastructure,” she said.
“Whether we get mobile reception towers, whether it be better road infrastructure, and also to ease the cost of living for them by making sure that every person in my community can see a GP for free, 20 per cent off HECS debt, saving an average student of $5,300, and also three days of free childcare.”
Fernando commended her Liberal opponent, saying they had run a good campaign.
“I wish them the very best,” she said.
Liberals’ La Trobe MP Jason Wood, who is in a surprisingly tight fight to retain his seat, said the Trump Presidency and the policy of reigning in working from home were damaging to the Liberal’s campaign.
“When Trump came to power, we thought it could lead to a Coalition, we didn’t know it would actually end up being a wrecking ball,” he said.
“I’m not saying we ran a great campaign, we didn’t, but that really hurt.
“Our policy on working from home was one of the dumbest policies ever, and that really hurt.”
When asked about Bruce candidate Safi’s heavy defeat, he said: “I never kick a person when they are down, that is my view, and he has given it the best he could.
“I don’t think we have any candidates that are up at the moment.”
