Vote knife edge

By Tania Martin
INCUMBENT Liberal MP Jason Wood’s political future is hanging in the balance as votes for the seat of La Trobe are too close to call following Saturday’s federal election.
The seat is on a knife edge despite the Labor Government’s resounding victory with the results of the postal voting expected to cast the deciding vote.
Mr Wood is currently leading the way in first preference votes with 45.81 per cent compared to ALP candidate Rodney Cocks who has 41.17 per cent.
But in the two candidate preferred votes Mr Wood is trailing his opponent by less than one per cent with 49.73 per cent to Mr Cocks’ 50.27 per cent.
However, Mr Wood said that he never expected to win because the Liberal Party had not been polling well before the election.
He said the ALP campaign had focussed a lot on the WorkChoices legislation and the pain it was causing local families.
Mr Wood said that WorkChoices, and the recent rate rise had been some of the deciding factors in Labor’s resounding victory.
Meanwhile Mr Cocks said he always knew that the seat of La Trobe would be a close call.
“It was always going to be a tight contest and I knew it would come down to the wire,” he said. “We ran a positive campaign and worked hard because we knew it would be a close finish.”
Mr Cocks said counting votes was a time consuming process and that he didn’t expect a result before the end of the week.
Mr Wood said if he regains his seat, it would be his job to make sure that the Labor Government lives up to all its promises for La Trobe. “Mr Rudd has said he will work for all Australians and my role will be to make sure he’s accountable for that,” he said.
During the campaign the Rudd Government promised to spend $2.5 million on the development of a performing art centre at Emerald College and to spend 15.3 million on a weeds plan.
Mr Wood said if he returns to Parliament he would fight to make sure both these significant promises are realised.
“I will work to make sure these promises are in Labor’s budget so we can get the projects off the ground,” he said.
Mr Wood said regardless of the result, he congratulates Mr Cocks on a hard-fought campaign.
“He ran a good campaign and was a tough and formidable opponent,” he said.
Mr Wood has also thanked all his supporters. However, he says the final results for La Trobe would not be known until Thursday.