“Whatever happens tonight,I’ll be fine,” she told Sky News. “What we need to focus on is we have an Albanese Labor government.”
Former Labor MP Chris Hayes,who announced his retirement last year,won the seat with a comfortable 14 per cent margin in the 2019 election.
Hayes had wanted Tu Le,a Vietnamese-Australian lawyer,to succeed him in the seat,but Le was pushed aside for Keneally when her Senate position came into doubt.
Dai Le,who arrived in Australia as a refugee from Vietnam,said locals in Fowler felt “insulted” and taken for granted by Labor.
In Labor-held Parramatta,former Kevin Rudd adviser Andrew Charlton defeated Liberal candidate Maria Kovacic by 55-45.
“It was a huge challenge to win the seat of Parramatta,and tonight we met that challenge,” Charlton told Labor supporters at his celebration party.
“When I was first preselected,I said,‘To be your candidate for Parramatta was the honour of my life’,and tonight that honour has turned into a responsibility.”
In a major victory for Labor,Sally Sitou picked up the seat of Reid,which includes the suburbs of Homebush and Concord,with a swing of 7 per cent.
Labor’s candidate for Parramatta,Andrew Charlton,campaigning on election day.Credit:Dean Sewell
Sitou spoke out early in the campaign against people saying she should not run for parliament because of her Chinese heritage. She later gained national prominence when her Liberal opponent,Fiona Martin,appeared to confuse her with Tu Le,the Vietnamese-Australian candidate overlooked by Labor in Fowler.
Sitou arrived to applause from Labor volunteers at a party in Five Dock on Saturday night where she declared victory.
“This moment is surreal in the best way possible. That one could dare to dream a dream this big,” Sitou said.
“This community has voted for fairness,for integrity in government,and for a better future for all.”
Labor candidate for Reid Sally Sitou and son Max,6,after voting at North Strathfield Primary.Credit:Brook Mitchell
Speaking earlier on election day,she said:“The magnitude of my candidacy has hit me today. I think there’s something really special to be said about this country when the daughter of migrants,Chinese-Australians,can run for our parliament in a critical seat like this.”
In Bennelong,Liberal candidate Simon Kennedy and Labor’s Jerome Laxale were locked in a 50-50 split result in one of the closest contests in the country.
The Liberal Party suffered a 7 per cent swing against it in the seat,which was previously held by popular local member John Alexander.
The Coalition’s combative rhetoric on China appears to have cost it votes in the seat where 21 per cent of residents has Chinese ancestry.
Liberal candidate for Bennelong Simon Kennedy campaigns at West Ryde Public School on election day.Credit:Dean Sewell.
“The drama will continue into tonight and well into tomorrow,” Kennedy told a crowd of Liberal supporters on election night.
Liberal frontbencher Michaelia Cash said the party’s preselection dramas in NSW had hurt the party in Bennelong,given Kennedy was only announced as the party’s candidate in late March.
“I think that it would have been nicer if we had a lot of candidates on the ground a lot earlier,” she said on Channel Seven.
“In saying that,when you look at Bennelong and you look at the name recognition that John Alexander had …having him decide to step aside,you just do get automatically that transfer of vote.”
With Angus Dalton.
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