"If there's one word to describe this win it is humbling", she said on stage, before a booming three cheers rang out across scooners of lager and a sea of orange T-shirts. There was no mention of Tony Abbott in a room that felt like the federal election had been Labor's. Triumph: Michelle Rowland, likely re-elected MP for Greenway, outside Caddies Creek Public School at Glenwood. Credit:Helen Nezdropa Ms Rowland said she finally allowed herself to believe the figures at 8pm - and that she hadn't heard from Kevin Rudd but has 70 missed calls and 40 messages on her phone.

"I'm exhausted but elated...and thirsty!" she said, before turning to a volunteer and asking for a VB. In Toongabbie it was a different story. Things went from bad to worse for the defeated Liberal candidate, as news of a landslide defeat of Jaymes Diaz trickled down to his underground car park campaign office. Pulling into a car space at speed in a Diaz-emblazoned van, the "six pointless plan" man's brother Jayson crashed the campaign vehicle into a pillar. It was a poetic end to a bad, bad day.

After a victory by the Labor for Greenway that saw Michelle Rowland strengthen her hold of the western Sydney seat by 3 per cent, the hapless Mr Diaz appeared not to want to come out to play. Not that it was a change of habit - Mr Diaz had been out of contact all day, with repeated calls and attempts to track him down at polling stations coming to nothing. He ended his campaign as it started, with Mr Diaz's campaign style best described as elusive. Mr Diaz, who shot to prominence on day one of the campaign after failing to cite his party's core approaches to stopping the boats, was the brunt of a final joke on polling day, with a mobile cinema screen playing the six-point gaffe on repeat at key points around the electorate. Mr Diaz's reluctance to face media after a sensational channel Ten interview in which he failed to cite the Coalition's six points to stop the boats, became a running joke throughout the campaign, with questions over his home address and expired practising certificate [legal licence] adding to his woes. He also declined the offer to speak at a candidates' forum three weeks into the campaign, cementing his "Where's Wally" reputation. Ms Rowland told Fairfax Media her opponent "has shown he is completely incompetent."

After opinion polls initially suggested the contenders were neck and neck in the marginal seat, it appears voters may, at final count, agree with the Labor member. The Labor triumph - which looks set to be the big win of the campaign - comes at the end of what Ms Rowland said was three years of campaigning. Shortly before casting her vote at Caddies Creek PS, Ms Rowland told Fairfax Media her opponent "has shown that he is completely incompetent". "The failure to turn up for the job interview, which is essentially what you do when you're running for public office, I think that it speaks volumes about his incapacity to be a member of Parliament. "What kind of candidate on election day doesn't want to be found? He's shown he's completely incompetent and doesn't want to engage with people, which is one of the key things that a member of parliament needs to do."

She said she is most proud of bringing issues of west and north-west Sydney into the national agenda. "Prior to that, every now and then western Sydney would be somewhere the Liberal Party would be sometimes turn up to if the Liberal party wanted to gain a seat." The most marginal seat in NSW was previously held by Labor with just a 0.9 per cent margin. Mr Diaz lost to Ms Rowland in 2010 by 779 votes.