Election 2016: Labor's Steve Georganas claims victory in SA seat of Hindmarsh

Updated

Labor's candidate for the South Australian seat of Hindmarsh, Steve Georganas, has claimed victory, but his rival sitting member Matt Williams says he has not given up hope of a late surge in support.

Hindmarsh has been called for Labor by the ABC's election computer, leaving Herbert in Queensland the only outstanding seat still in doubt.

The decision puts Labor on 68 seats, with the Coalition securing the slimmest of parliamentary majorities on 76 seats. There are five crossbenchers.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten congratulated his candidate and said Mr Georganas ran a "sensational" campaign.

"Steve Georganas is a fighter," Mr Shorten told reporters in Adelaide.

"I'm looking forward to, as indeed are all his caucus colleagues, to having … the hero of Hindmarsh, back in Canberra with the Labor caucus."

The former factory assembly line worker and taxi driver previously held the seat, but was ousted by voters in 2013 when Tony Abbott swept to power with a significant national swing.

"It is a great honour and a privilege to be re-elected to represent the seat that I was born in, the seat that I've worked in all my life, and the seat that I have represented previously," Mr Georganas said.

Mr Williams has held the seat since 2013 and told the ABC he was not yet prepared to concede defeat.

He said there were still thousands of votes to be counted, and while there was a "lot of ground to make up", postals had been falling his way.

Counting continues in Herbert

In Queensland, counting in the seat of Herbert is still continuing.

Incumbent Liberal MP Ewen Jones moved ahead in the federal vote count for the first time this afternoon.

Mr Jones had been trailing Labor candidate Cathy O'Toole, but postal votes have propelled him into the lead for the seat which encompasses the Townsville area.

At about 2:00pm the Australian Electoral Commission put him 113 votes ahead with about 87 per cent of the vote counted.

Topics: federal-elections, elections, government-and-politics, alp, political-parties, hindmarsh-5007, semaphore-5019, henley-beach-5022, henley-beach-south-5022, fulham-gardens-5024, glenelg-5045, somerton-park-5044, townsville-4810

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