Senator Brown also defended the party’s preselection processes, following Senator Singh’s call for them to be overhauled.

Senator Singh received more than 20,000 below the line votes to be re-elected despite being placed below union leader John Short in sixth place on the Labor ticket. 

An elated Senator Singh called for rank-and-file Labor members to have full voting rights in Tasmania following her re-election on Wednesday. 

Currently rank-and-file members have 50 per cent voting rights, with the rest controlled by trade unions.

Labor’s national executive, rather than its Tasmanian branch, was responsible for placing Senator Singh last on its double-dissolution senate ticket, but party members placed her in fourth position on an earlier half-Senate election ticket. 

Senator Brown, who was elected to the Senate in 2005, said the Tasmanian Labor Party’s pre-selection processes was “the most democratic system in the country”. 

“It’s the system that everybody goes through and I think it works quite well,” Senator Brown said.

“Ultimately we have put forward a team and then the voters select. That’s how our democracy works and Lisa got a good vote.”

Asked if she would have preferred Mr Short to have been elected instead of Senator Singh, Senator Brown said she had wanted to see six ALP candidates elected.

“I have a good working relationship with all sitting senators, including Lisa, and John Short is a good friend of mine,” Senator Brown said. 

The new Labor spokeswoman for Disability and Carers said a grassroots team effort and a focus on health and education had helped Labor gain three House of Representatives seats in the state, increasing the number of Tasmanian MPs from six to nine.

Senator Brown said the party would not back down from its push to see the party’s Tasmanian election promises delivered, saying Mr Turnbull would be “turning his back” on the state if they didn’t.

“If they were out there on the phones and the doors their promises were not the ones Tasmanians wanted. They were clearly rejected.”

Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz has previously dismissed any push for the government to fund anything other than its promises for the state.