With the winner of Saturday night's election for the seat of Lyons still too close to call, incumbent Lyons Labor MHR Brian Mitchell said it was unlikely the final result will be known before next week.
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On Sunday morning, Mr Mitchell was only slightly ahead of his rival, Liberal's candidate for Lyons Susie Bower, with a margin of 708 votes in Mr Mitchell's favour.
The Labor incumbent declined to offer his opinion on who he thought had a better chance of securing the seat, saying the final outcome would be decided by postal votes.
"My nose is in front and that's better than having your nose behind, but the postal can go any way, we just don't know," he said.
"I've got probably about a week to wait until we know what the final result in Lyons is, but when you put yourself up for election you're always in the hands of the voters and we'll know by the end of the week what the voters have decided."
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After a historical night which saw the Australian Labor Party oust the Liberal-National coalition, Mr Mitchell said the impact of independent candidates on the major parties showed both had work to do.
"Nationwide, people on big margins have lost their seats, people on small margins have kept their seats," he said.
"There's going to be a lot of lessons out of it and I think politics last night was turned on its head."
Regardless of the outcome in Lyons, Mr Mitchell said the most important thing to take away from the election was the reinstitution of a Labor government.
"The most important thing... The best feeling I've got is that we have a Labor government, that's the most important thing for us," he said.
Speaking at the Longford RSL on election day, Ms Bower said she was happy with how her team had pulled together throughout the campaign. "To be this close is great, we always knew it was going to be tight," she said.
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Ms Bower said she had "no idea" if she could pull through to win the seat, but she remained hopeful of the result.
If Mr Mitchell does retain his seat, it would mean all three Northern incumbents were re-elected, bucking the national trend, while Ms Bower's ascension would see a Liberal three-for-three stronghold established in the North.
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