INDEPENDENT Member for Mildura Ali Cupper has spent this week cleaning out her electorate office, conceding on social media yesterday that “the Nats wanted the seat back and now they have it”.
However, The Nationals’ challenger, Jade Benham, steadfastly refuses to claim victory, holding a slender 2.62 per cent lead over the incumbent member with no update to counting since Sunday morning.
Ms Cupper, who refused to be interviewed by Sunraysia Daily yesterday, took to Facebook to lament the likely National Party victory after she served just one term in office.
“As we pack down the office, here’s some of my favourite things,” Ms Cupper posted with various images of artwork, memorabilia and pages from the Sunraysia Daily.
“Right now, these are destined for my office at home. But they might be back in 4 years time.
“The confetti has settled. Now it’s time to deliver.
“Tick tock. We’re keeping score.”
Ms Benham, however, said she would await official confirmation before claiming Mildura as The Nationals’ seat.
However, she described The Nationals result statewide as “stunning”.
“It has been our best performance by The Nationals since 1943 — so 79 years and it has been our best result,” Ms Benham said.’
“That speaks volumes to the feeling across regional Victoria. To replace three regional Independents with Nationals speaks huge volumes not only to what and how people in the regions want to be represented, but getting back to a core value base and putting trust in a really strong team.
“I do think people need and want a clear choice and they chose wisely.
“You are going to have a louder voice if you have got a strong team of 11 members in the party room.”
Ms Benham admitted she watched the election coverage on Saturday night “in disbelief” as the Daniel Andrews-led Labor Party was returned to power with a majority government.
“I was in disbelief at how the inner city have still voted with little to no regard of where their food comes from, who is growing it and any regard for the regions,” she said.
“It was a disappointing result statewide, but such a stunning result for The Nationals and I couldn’t be prouder.”
The Robinvale-based Ms Benham said that if elected, she was confident that she could work to achieve positive results for the region while in opposition.
“I’d like to think that I’m a pretty diplomatic person — I think that is the only way to get things done,” she said.
“I’ve proven that already on Swan Hill Rural City Council — being diplomatic and building relationships is how you are most productive and people want to work with you when you are productive and constructive to work with.
“That’s vital in the first instance, so I’ not going to come out swinging and saying ‘you have got to govern for the regions’.
“(The Nationals’ Federal Member for Mallee) Anne Webster is a really good example of if you build the right relationships in the right places you can get things done.”
A formal result for the Mildura electorate may not be known until the end of next week following the receipt of postal votes and a possible redistribution of preference votes to determine a victor.
