Durack decides Price is right

Liberal candidate Melissa Price has claimed the seat of Durack, after a closely fought battle with Nationals candidate Shane Van Styn.

The race between the Liberals and the Nationals was decided by minor-party preferences after primary votes counts were too close to call.

Last Wednesday Ms Price claimed victory with 54.22 per cent of votes on a two candidate preferred basis.

Ms Price will be the first woman to represent the Australia’s North West federally, a title she said she was honoured to have.

“I’m ecstatic with the result…tens of thousands of people have voted for me, they’ve put their trust in me to represent them at a federal level,” she said.

Ms Price went into the election with a 13.7 per cent margin from retiring Liberal member Barry Haase, but results indicated a negative swing of 7 per cent.

“I think people shouldn’t forget that Barry Haase had his own personal style, and a lot of that 13.7 per cent swing was due to Barry himself, not just the Liberal Party,” she said.

“In fact I think that’s exactly what we were imagining with the results.

“It was foolish of us to imagine we would hold on to that 13.7 per cent margin, because a lot of that was down to Barry, and I myself only had a six-week campaign.”

Mr Van Styn said the close margin between himself and Ms Price was humbling.

“The Nationals are truly becoming a power to be recognised with in the State,” he said.

“I hope we just continue that trend next time and take the seat.”

Mr Van Styn said the Labor preferencing deal with the Liberals secured Ms Price’s win.

“It had a big part to play,” he said.

“It’s a bit disappointing to see a party actively destroying itself for the benefit of it’s sworn enemy, at the cost of a party that solely focuses on regional WA.”

Ms Price downplayed the role of Labor preferences on the vote.

“There’s no doubt that we got some preference flow towards us, but I would say that was probably about 30 per cent, so the other 70 per cent I believe would have gone to the National Party,” she said.