Never underestimate exactly how huge this is.
Lisa Singh, an incumbent Labor Senator for Tasmania, has just won re-election in the state after a tense vote count, filling out one of the final two senate seats the island state had left to count and confirm.
A Labor senator winning re-election in Tasmania isn’t generally a big story; Tassie is, traditionally, a red state after all. But what is huge is the fact that Singh won this re-election, despite the fact that her own party didn’t particularly want her to.
Singh is, by all rights, a relatively young, very popular, and extremely competent senator who first won a senate seat in 2011. After serving her term out, the Double Dissolution election would ordinarily have seemed like a formality. But the Tasmanian Labor Party pulled a fast one on her by bumping her down their senate ticket, all the way to sixth.
Sixth place. For a currently serving elected senator.
That spot, in other states, is more or less an un-winnable position. Why the state party did this is unclear, though speculation suggests that Tasmanian Labor’s left faction made the push to bump her down; Singh is aligned to the National Left, but not the State left, and thus functions as something more of an independent senator, rather than a party shill.
Fighting the party line is a difficult task, but such is Singh’s popularity that a grassroots re-election campaign caught on like gangbusters in Tasmania, with thousands of businesses supporting the Senator with posters in windows, and tireless volunteers working around the clock.
The strategy paid off. On election day, Singh’s voters backed her in in droves by preferencing her below the line with their number 1 vote. She got so many first preferences, in fact, that she managed to accumulate 0.8 of a senate voting quote *BY HERSELF*.
But it still required full preferential counting to confirm her re-election, and today, finally, her seat was sealed. Lisa Singh is back in.
Deeply honored by this historic result that’s returned me to the @AuSenate Thank you Tasmanians this is your win. #ausvotes #politas
— Lisa Singh (@Lisa_Singh) July 27, 2016
In a Facebook post, Senator Singh thanked the people of Tasmania for making themselves well and truly heard.
“I’m deeply honoured and inspired by the historic result that has returned me to the Australian Senate.This is a victory for thousands of passionate and committed Tasmanian’s who’ve made their voices heard.Thank you to the many volunteers and Labor party members that gave their time and commitment to campaign tirelessly for my re-election. And thank you to everyone who took the time to call, email, chat, visit my office, and vote for Labor.I won’t be dwelling on this result, but getting straight back to work!”
Hell yes, Lisa! Go get ’em.
Tasmania’s other in-dispute seat was also settled today, with Greens incumbent Nick McKim being returned to the Senate as well.
Photo: Senator Lisa Singh/Facebook.
