Labor reclaims two NSW seats in state by-elections after donations probe

Charlestown Labor candidate and now MP-elect Jodie Harrison at the Charlestown Public School polling booth. Picture: Liam Driver Source: News Corp Australia

Newcastle Labor candidate and now MP-elect Tim Crakanthorp holds his daughter Avalon after voting at the Hamilton South Public School. Picture: Liam Driver Source: News Corp Australia

Voting at The Junction Public School polling booth in Newcastle. Picture: Liam Driver Source: News Corp Australia

LABOR tonight declared victory in two ICAC-triggered NSW state by-elections in the Hunter Valley. 

Opposition Leader John Robertson said Newcastle and Charlestown had returned to ALP hands as was widely expected after being lost in the anti-Labor general-election landslide of 2011.

The ruling Coalition did not field candidates.

The seats were vacated in August after the resignations of Liberals Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell who admitted to the Independent Commission Against Corruption that they had taken banned donations.

Voters in the two seats will have to go to the polls again in March for the state’s general election.

The result takes Labor’s lower house tally from 21 to 23. That is still well short of the 47 seats needed to form government.

Incoming Labor MP for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp said the traditionally safe Labor area would never be taken for granted again.

“Today we showed the Liberals that Newcastle is a Labor town,” he told a crowd of Labor supporters at the Premier Hotel in Broadmeadow.

Mr Owen and Mr Cornwell quit the NSW parliament in August after making admissions to ICAC about banned donations they had received.

Mr Crakanthorp, a Newcastle City councillor, and Lake Macquarie mayor Jodie Harrison had been expected to pick up both seats.

The Liberals did not run candidates in what NSW party director Tony Nutt describes as an act of “atonement”.

Mr Crakanthorp said earlier today he hoped his victory in Newcastle would give Labor momentum for the March general election.

“It’s about trying to engage people and convince them that Labor is back,” he told reporters outside Hamilton South Public School before casting his vote.

Ms Harrison, standing in Charlestown, said she was focused on restoring trust and integrity in NSW politics.

“I’ll be working very hard between now and March to be re-elected,” she said.

source: theaustralian.com.au