Singh keeps upper house seat after strong below-the-line vote, giving Labor five Senate seats in Tasmania, Liberals four, Greens two and Jacqui Lambie one

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Tasmanian Labor senator Lisa Singh has been re-elected off the back of a strong below-the-line vote despite being dropped to sixth on her party’s Senate ticket.

Singh tweeted that she was “deeply honoured” by the historic result, the first time a candidate has been elected on below-the-line votes since the above and below the line system was introduced in 1984.

The Greens senator Nick McKim has also been re-elected in Tasmania, edging out One Nation and the Liberal senator Richard Colbeck, who nearly staged a Singh-like upset after being dropped to fifth on his party’s ticket.

The results mean that Labor has won five Senate seats in Tasmania, the Liberals four, Greens two and Jacqui Lambie one.

How Lisa Singh and Richard Colbeck used personal appeal against party rankings Read more

It has taken three and a half weeks since the 2 July election to complete counting and allocate preferences.

Labor’s Cathy O’Toole has claimed victory in the last undecided lower house seat of Herbert despite the incumbent not conceding, and the Australian Electoral Commission has paid $60.5m in public funding to 24 parties and 24 independent candidates.

In a statement Colbeck said: “I unfortunately don’t have the numbers to continue the great privilege of representing Tasmania in the Senate.”

Colbeck was Tasmania’s only minister, holding the tourism and international education portfolios in the last parliament, before he lost the roles in the reshuffle on 18 July.

He congratulated successful candidates and said the Senate “throws us all together” and generates friendships among “strange bedfellows”.

“It is important to thank the Liberal party, without whose franchise I would never have had the opportunity to be in this role,” he said.

Lisa Singh (@Lisa_Singh) Deeply honored by this historic result that's returned me to the @AuSenate Thank you Tasmanians this is your win. #ausvotes #politas

In the final undecided lower house seat, Labor’s O’Toole claimed victory on Facebook over incumbent MP Ewen Jones despite holding a lead of just 35 votes on the last AEC update on Tuesday.

O’Toole said: “The recount finished today and I have won by 35 votes. We have the full preference recount to complete and then the seat can be declared, I believe.

“This is the most amazing, surreal feeling.”

She thanked volunteers and said Labor had waited 20 years for a win in Herbert.

Jones told Guardian Australia the full preference allocation in the seat would continue into the weekend and that could still tip him over the line.

“We’re forever hopeful,” he said. “We have to wait for it to play out.”

Herbert recount: Labor ahead of Coalition after counting error discovered Read more

The result may also be challenged in the court of disputed returns, which parties consider feasible if one candidate wins by fewer than 150 votes.

The LNP is seeking legal advice about its concerns that soldiers on exercise and hospital patients may have missed out on voting.

Under public election funding laws, the AEC pays $2.63 a vote to all parties and candidates who receive 4% or more of the first preference votes.

The Liberal party has received $23.5m, Labor $22.4m, the Greens $6.3m and the Nationals $3.2m.

Minor parties who received substantial funding included Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, which got $1.6m, the Nick Xenophon Team ($1.2m) and Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party ($544,000).

Independents who received funding included Cathy McGowan and Andrew Wilkie, who got $81,000 and $76,000 for claiming their lower house seats.

Unsuccessful independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott collected $72,000 and $71,000 respectively.