There was a slight loss suffered by Greek Australian Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou, and a marginal increase to the votes garnered by Labor deputy Steve Georganas. The good news is that both deputies will return to Canberra.
MP Vamvakinou has held the seat of Calwell, Victoria, since 2001 – one of the safest Labor seats. She gathered 67.8 per cent of the votes with 67.7 per cent of them counted. This is a 1.9 per cent decrease from 2016.
Labor won the key seat of Chisholm, Julia Banks’ old seat that she abandoned to run in Flinders. Banks was the only Liberal MP to win a seat off Labor at the last election however she was unsuccessful against Liberal minister Greg Hunt running in Flinders as an independent. She only managed to get 14.7 per cent of the votes with 76.3 per cent of votes counted, coming third in the race behind Hunt (46.4 per cent) and the Labor candidate 25.1 per cent.
Senator Arthur Sinodinos will return to Canberra, however it is still uncertain as to whether Petros Georgiou will be reelected in Western Australia though chances seem slim.
The Liberals have won 76 seats so far, and the Coalition needs 76 seats to have a majority in Parliament. With votes still counted and five seats still too close to call, the Senate make-up is still undetermined.