Labor takes nation's tightest seat from Liberals after 12 years

Saturday, 3 May 2025 21:06

Melbourne's eastern suburbs have turned red, after the Labor party turfed long-running Liberal MP Michael Sukkar from the seat of Deakin.

The Melbourne swing seat of Deakin has turned red, with the Labor party turfing long-running Liberal MP Michael Sukkar from the seat.

The Liberal frontbencher retained his seat with a margin of just 0.2 per cent at the last election, but boundary changes meant that gap thinned to just 0.02 per cent going into the polls.

The shadow housing minister has suffered a further swing against him at this year's election, losing almost 5 per cent of his primary vote with 25 per cent of votes counted.

LIVE UPDATES: 2025 Federal Election results as they happen

The blueblood seat, which encompasses eastern suburbs such as Ringwood, Blackburn, Croydon, Nunawading, has been won by the Liberal Party at all but three elections since its creation in 1937.

Lawyer and teacher Matt Gregg, who came close to claiming the seat in 2022, will fill Sukkar's shoes after a 12-year run.

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But the Liberal Party has hung on in western Victoria, with former Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan successfully winning his sixth term.

Former radio host and Climate 200-backed independent Alex Dyson was hoping it would be third-time lucky in his race to convert voters from the blue-blood seat.

While Dyson made further progress, so far picking up an additional 13.3 per cent in the primary vote, it was no match for Tehan's camp.

With 30.6 per cent of votes counted, there has been a 0.9 per cent swing to Tehan, who leads with 54.5 per cent of votes.

Tehan told 9News he was "very, very pleased about that result".

"This electorate is the size of Belgium. I've spent the last three years really working as hard as I possibly can.

"We've had bushfires, we've had hailstorms which wrecked the town of Casterton. So there's been a lot of hard work just helping communities and it does seem like that we've got a very positive result here," he said.

When asked by 9News political editor Charles Croucher what he did that other Liberal candidate didn't, Tehan said he could not speak for others.

"What I've done here is just work my backside off just 100 per cent. I've never worked harder in my life."

More to come.