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Conservative shift in upper house reflects lower house gains in northern Victoria

By Murray Silby

Dec 5, 2022

**Re-elected:** Wendy Lovell campaigning in her home town of Shepparton ahead of the state election. Ms Lovell has been re-elected to the upper house for the Liberals and will be joined by a Nationals colleague. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Indicative results from the state election for the Northern Victoria Region of the upper house have suggested a shift towards the conservative side of politics in line with the lower house results.

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Like the Legislative Assembly result that has seen independents Suzanna Sheed and Ali Cupper in Shepparton and Mildura, respectively, dumped for Nationals candidates Kim O’Keeffe and Jade Benham, the Legislative Council result also seems to indicate a move towards the conservative for the region.

Although counting is continuing for upper house regions, and a number of seats remain undecided, some experts are tipping an increase in progressive representatives overall, but that will not be the case in Northern Victoria.

**Breakthrough:** One Nation's Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell is projected to win a seat in Victoria’s upper house after previous election attempts, including this year’s Federal Election as a candidate in Nicholls. Photo by Max Stainkamph

With more than 70 per cent of the vote counted, the latest results are suggesting the region’s five representatives will be the Liberals’ Wendy Lovell, Labor’s Jaclyn Symes, the Nationals’ Gaelle Broad, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, and Georgie Purcell from the Animal Justice Party.

That means the Labor Party loses the seat of retiring member Mark Gepp, the Liberal Democrats’ Tim Quilty loses his and Tania Maxwell loses a seat for Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party.

The newcomers are Ms Broad, Ms Tyrrell, who is from Invergordon, and Ms Purcell.

Only the Animal Justice Party is seen as a left-leaning party among those elected.

Ms Lovell was the first elected thanks to reaching the quota required under the proportional counting system used in the upper house. Ms Symes finished second while Ms Broad was third.

One thing is clear, as was the case after the 2018 election, Premier Daniel Andrews will have to negotiate with a cross bench in the upper house to get any legislation passed.