Labor’s strong hold

By Bridget Cook
VOTERS in Greater Dandenong electorates have defied the trend in this year’s State Election by maintaining faith in their Labor MPs, despite a huge swing towards the Coalition across the state.
Dandenong Labor MP John Pandazopoulos and Lyndhurst Labor MP Tim Holding both retained their seats, but there were swings to the Liberals in both seats.
Mr Pandazopoulos said he was pleased with the result, with a much lower swing than the state average against him.
The win makes Mr Pandazopoulos the longest serving member for Dandenong and the former Labor Government.
“After being in government for the past 11 years, I think people appreciate the work Labor has done for Greater Dandenong, whether it be the Dandenong Hospital, TAFE facilities, the Revitalising Central Dandenong project,” he said.
Mr Pandazopoulos said it would be harder to deliver for the area now that the Coalition was in power.
“I have grave concerns,” he said. “The campaign reflected that, with no Liberal frontbenchers coming to the area to make any commitments or announcements.
“There are a number of projects that have a big question mark hanging over them with the Liberals in power. The Dandenong High School is not completed yet, and even the Revitalising Central Dandenong project, the Liberals have never endorsed this sort of project.
“I’m concerned, but I’ll still advocate for the area, but it makes it a lot harder to deliver when your party’s not in government.”
As of Tuesday, Mr Pandazopoulos had received 12,881 of first preference votes, followed by Liberal candidate Dale Key who received 7396 votes.
In the Lyndhurst electorate, Mr Holding received 16,564 first preference votes, more than double that of Liberal candidate Tony Holland who received 8023 votes.
Mr Key said people in the Dandenong electorate had missed an opportunity.
“They now have an MP who is in Opposition,” he said.
“State-wide the result was fantastic, and locally we attracted fairly well.”
Mr Holland said the result was tremendous for him and his party.
“I was running against a sitting, high-profile member and we had some incredible swings in some booths,” he said.
“It obviously shows that the people in Lyndhurst aren’t happy.”
Mr Holland said the Lyndhurst electorate could now welcome works to fix the notorious Springvale level crossing, something he pledged in the lead-up to the election.
“It was an election commitment, which can only be good for people.”