‘This is One Nation heartland now’: Labor shocked in bruising Secret Harbour byelection

One Nation has converted its popularity in opinion polls into electoral success in Western Australia, with a 30.6 per cent swing making gym owner Luke Herdegen the party’s first-ever lower house MP and nixing Labor’s efforts to retain Secret Harbour in a bruising byelection.

By 10.30pm, with 80 per cent of the vote counted, Herdegen had amassed a primary vote of 39 per cent, ahead of Labor candidate Georgia Tree’s 24.4 per cent and Liberal candidate Ryan Robertson’s 17.3 per cent.

The preference count showed Herdegen was ahead of Tree, with a two-party preferred count showing a 3.9 per cent margin.

One Nation claimed victory on Saturday, with WA leader Rod Caddies introducing Herdegen to the crowd of supporters gathered at a party function as “the next member for Secret Harbour”.

Labor refused to concede earlier in the night as it awaited vote counts from the early polling booth, but those dropped just after 10pm and sealed One Nation’s historic victory.

Tree conceded defeat in an Instagram post on Sunday morning, writing that she never took the Secret Harbour community, or the opportunity to represent the electorate, for granted.

“It has been an honour to fight for my community and the values I believe in – fairness, equality, and making things better for others,” she wrote.

“Congratulations to Luke Herdegen. It is a great honour to represent your community in parliament – and it is a massive responsibility.”

Tree wrote that she would continue to fight for the values that ensured everyone got the same opportunities, no matter their backgrounds.

“You’re witnessing a result they said was impossible,” Caddies told the crowd of One Nation supporters in Karnup on Saturday night.

“A safe seat does not stay safe if you ignore it long enough. Tonight, Labor found it out the hard way. Secret Harbor did not send a protest, it sent a verdict.

“Western Australia just told the rest of the nation the two-party system is dead.”

Herdegen was full of praise for the roomful of volunteers that had helped the campaign.

“They came with their scare tactics. They came with their handlers on the polling booths, and we marched right through it.