Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s birthday wish has come true as Labor is projected to retain its seat following a by-election in Melbourne’s Dunkley electorate triggered by the death of MP Peta Murphy. ABC election analyst Antony Green called the seat for Labor with 59 per cent of the votes counted at 8.45pm on Saturday. Labor and the Liberals both tempered expectations of victory in the vote triggered after Murphy lost her battle with cancer in December.
On Saturday, he claimed opponents had spent more than Labor in the lead-up to the by-election which he described as a “negative right-wing campaign” fuelled by money from unnamed billionaires. “We’ve seen people in this electorate get swamped on Facebook and on all of the advertising that’s taken place with misinformation, with fear,” Albanese said. Belyea vowed to “bat for the battlers” as she talked up her connections to the community.