FOLLOWING the state-wide trend, Labor’s Danielle Green retained her seat of Yan Yean, winning two-thirds of the vote after preferences.
Ms Green’s win was one of 51 for Labor as of 10.30am Monday morning, giving Premier Daniel Andrews a second term in office.
Ms Green defeated former Liberal candidate Meralyn Klein with a 13.1 per cent swing towards the ALP to retain the seat she has held since 2002.
Ms Klein was disendorsed by the Liberal Party after she was featured in a video published by far-right party the Australian Liberty Alliance.
While Ms Klein appeared on ballot papers as a Liberal candidate, she was running as an independent on election day.
Ms Green won 55.2 per cent of first preference votes with 63.8 per cent of votes counted, a 12 per cent swing in her favour.
Ms Klein, meanwhile, won 27.7 per cent, a 14.8 per cent swing against her.
Greens candidate High McKinnon won 6.4 per cent and other parties won the remaining 10.8 per cent.
Ms Green dominated the polls in Diamond Creek, Doreen, Laurimar, Mernda and Wallan while it was a closer contest in Whittlesea, Wattle Glen and Beveridge.
Ms Green said she was stunned by the result.
“It felt very good at prepoll and the feeling got better every day. I never in my wildest dreams expected to win on primaries and I’d never done that before in five elections.
Ms Green said work has already started on Labor’s plans for the new term.
“Yesterday, the North East Link went to market as we promised and that’s a huge game changing project,” she said.
“Mental health professionals will be in schools from the start of the next school year and I think that’s crucially important to support our young people, especially in the lead up to the 10th anniversary of Black Saturday. And it’s important to me to support people who will be doing it tough in the lead up to the anniversary.
“As soon as the ministry is known, I’ll be making contact with the relevant ministers to start making progress on the things we’ve promised like the new community hospitals in the north, new paediatric department at the Northern, new schools, continuing to work on the new campus for Beveridge PS, additional carriages for the Seymour line and the overall positive plan we have for Melbourne’s north.”
