Labor’s Cassandra Fernando has won her second term as the MP for Holt.
She is appearing on track to harvest a higher share of the primary votes than in her last election in 2022.
At the time of the writing, 75 per cent of the votes have been counted, and Fernando has secured about 45.6 per cent of the primary votes, followed by Liberal’s Annette Samuel (25.3 per cent), Greens’ Payal Tiwari (11.2 per cent), One Nation’s Trevor Hammond (8.5 per cent), Family First’s Shane Foreman (5 per cent), and Legalise Cannabis’s Riley Aickin (4.5 per cent).
Fernando is projected to win about 64.2 per cent of the votes under the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC)’s two-candidate-preferred model, against Samuel’s 35.8 per cent – doubling her 2022 margin with a swing of 7.1 per cent.
In the previous election, among eight candidates, Fernando gained 40.86 per cent of the primary votes.
Liberal has suffered a 5.6 per cent swing for one of the bluest booths in Holt: Pearcedale.
Among the 1517 formal votes, Samuel secured 50.2 per cent of them after preferences, against Fernando’s 49.8 per cent.
In the 2022 Election, the previous Liberal candidate gained 56 per cent of the after-preference votes.
Fernando celebrated the victory with her team on the election night, with the room erupting in cheers and applause.
Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards and Bass MP Jordan Crugnale were also present to witness the victory.
Emotions were at their highest among the crowd when the television projected that the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would lose his own seat.
Fernando addressed the crowd with excitement and tears and thanked her team members.
“I am deeply honoured and humbled to stand before you as the re-elected member for Holt,” she said.
“This is a community where I went to school, where I got my first job, I found my purpose, and standing up for people. Representing this community in our Federal Parliament has been the privilege of my entire life.
“It was a campaign built on fairness, equality, and more importantly, compassion.
“And the fundamental belief that no matter where you come from, what you look like, we all deserve a fair go.”
Talking with Star News, Fernando said she felt surreal, very blessed, and honoured to be able to represent the community for one more term.
She said her amazing team helped her navigate her pregnancy during the whole campaign.
“We were organised. We were staunch in what we wanted to do and to do it in a way that wouldn’t cause me any health issues, and they always made sure that my health came first.”
For Fernando, this election campaign was different from her last one as she was defending everything she had done in the last three years.
Speaking of her plan for the following three years, she said she would keep working hard to make sure that the community gets the infrastructure that they need.
“That’s one of my big priorities: infrastructure,” she said.
“Whether we get mobile reception towers, whether it be better road infrastructure, and also to ease the cost of living for them by making sure that every person in my community can see a GP for free, 20 per cent off HECS debt, saving an average student of $5,300, and also three days of free childcare.”
Fernando commended her Liberal opponent, saying they had run a good campaign.
“I wish them the very best,” she said.
Samuel conceded the loss on her Facebook and thanked her family, volunteers, supporters, and voters.
“This election didn’t go the way we hoped. The result is clear, and while it’s a tough pill to swallow, I accept it with humility and grace,” she said.
“But what’s even clearer to me is this: I have never been prouder to stand alongside the incredible people who believed in this campaign, who believed in me, and who believed that our community deserved to be heard, respected, and better represented…
“Yes, we lost this time. But the love I have for Holt—for our streets, our schools, our small businesses, our incredible diversity—it hasn’t faded. It’s only grown stronger. I will continue to be here, working alongside you, because public service doesn’t begin or end with an election.”
