The independent politician Zoe Daniel has conceded the Victorian seat of Goldstein after a partial recount confirmed the Liberal party’s Tim Wilson as finishing 175 votes ahead.
Wilson was installed as the shadow employment minister earlier this week and had been 260 votes ahead before a partial recount was finalised by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on Saturday afternoon.
Daniel, a former ABC journalist, said in a social media post she had called Wilson to concede but hinted she could be back for another run at the next election.
“Today we did not win. But we are not defeated. Hard things are hard, and a better kind of politics is worth fighting for. See you in 2028? Maybe!” she wrote on X.
The AEC said Wilson had finished 175 votes ahead with the change in margin down to determinations on informal votes and a correction to a data entry error.
Wilson wrote on X that now the recount was finished “it is time to get on with the job and take the voice and values of Goldstein to shape the future of Australia: and that’s precisely what I will do every day in service”.
He thanked his supporters and said in a tight race some had gone to extraordinary efforts to vote, including one person who “crossed Indonesia’s archipelago to vote at our embassy in Jakarta” and another who travelled from southern Israel to vote in Tel Aviv.
“Some reorganised entire itineraries to walk into an embassy or be at a hotel to return a postal vote,” he said.
Daniel, who defeated Wilson in the seat in the 2022 election, requested the recount last week “in light of the very tight margin and several errors being picked up in the portion of the count that was included in the distribution of preferences,” she said at the time.
In a social media video conceding the seat, Daniel said Goldstein was now “about as marginal as it gets” – which would mean increased accountability for Wilson.
“Community politics created that,” she said. “We have come so very close to a second victory.”
In a message directed to young people, Daniel said: “Changing systems of power is hard. Two steps forward is sometimes followed by one back.
“It’s a resilience test and it’s a reason to get back up and keep fighting, not a reason to give up. Today we did not win, but today we fought, we worked and we acted for the future of this nation. Be proud of yourselves, as I am of you and us.”
The AEC said in a statement the partial recount had been a “methodical and highly transparent process” and that a formal declaration of the poll for Goldstein would be made soon.
