By CASEY NEILL
NEW Bruce MP Julian Hill says it’s “humbling” that voters placed their trust in him at the Saturday 2 July poll.
With just over 70 per cent of the vote counted, the ALP candidate received 45.3 per cent of first preferences – up 3.4 per cent from Labor retiree Alan Griffin’s results at the 2013 Federal Election.
Liberal opponent Helen Kroger experienced a 3.1 per cent drop in the first preference vote.
Once preferences were distributed and two candidates remained in the race, Mr Hill held 54.6 per cent of the vote and Ms Kroger 45.4 per cent – a 2.8 per cent swing to the ALP.
“I never had any real expectations, to be honest,” he said.
“I just worked like a dog every day for 12 months and figured the rest is up to the people.
“I was actually pleased that seriously hard work and an old-fashioned grass roots approach still gets rewarded by people.”
He said the vote also indicated support for Labor’s policies, and recognised “the hundreds of people who’ve put in, day after day and volunteered their time and effort in support of their beliefs”.
“It’s a great responsibility to carry the hopes and efforts of so many local people,” he said.
Mr Hill said he got to know Ms Kroger well over the past six months and they got along well.
“We spent a lot of time together – pretty much nine hours a day standing next to each other at pre-poll and she’s a good person,” he said.
“We may have different views but it was remarked by voters how delighted they were to see us laughing and joking.
“More of that would be a good thing for Australia.”
Ms Kroger said it had been “a profound privilege” to be the Liberal candidate for Bruce.
“After more than two decades of Labor neglect, at this election the Bruce electorate has been front of mind for both major political parties,” she said.
“There has been a real hard fought contest in Bruce and the local community are the winners.
“Community members – rightly – have an expectation that Julian Hill will be the strong representative that they both need and deserve.”
Ms Kroger said her campaign team “was not staffed by political operatives, but rather hard working volunteers who, like me, want to improve their community”.
“I am grateful for their hard work, support and commitment,” she said.
Just under 70 per cent of people registered to vote in Bruce casted ballot papers.
Almost 3000 of those failed to do so correctly, but this represented a 1.12 per cent decrease in informal votes.
Mr Hill picked up most of his votes in the Noble Park, and Dandenong North areas of the electorate.
Most of Ms Kroger’s support came from Wheeler’s Hill and Glen Waverley.
Animal Justice Party candidate Douglas Leith picked up just over two per cent of the 67,453 votes cast in Bruce.
Stefanie Bauer grew the Greens vote by less than one per cent, receiving 6.87 per cent of the vote.
Family First Party’s Nathan Foggie, Jill Jarvis-Wills from the Renewable Energy Party, Drug Law Reform’s Alan Roncan shared 5.9 per cent of the vote.
