Benambra results

The election is over in Victoria and both the seat of Benambra and Ovens Valley have been decided.

Whilst Tim McCurdy won his seat back in Ovens valley, albeit with a reduced margin, Bill Tilley in Benambra had a battle on his hands with two strong Independents in Jacqui Hawkins and Jenny O'Connor.

Independent Jacqui Hawkins says she is very proud of the campaign her team yellow ran and how close it was.

"We've finally got a result and what a result it is, it took over 10 days after the election and the final vote count we've just found ourselves sitting 2,000 votes behind Bill Tilley so who would have thought we'd get this close and it would get down to preferences".

Ms Hawkins says she will now go back to work with her community.

"We've set out to make it marginal and oh haven't we done that. I'm going to resume the work that I've been doing with the Border Trust and Coalition, I truly do love where I live, the community and people and I'll always be passionate about it's growth and development. I won't be going anywhere anytime soon, but I'll be focussing my energy back into my continuing roles".

She is delighted the electorate is now considered marginal and will put the member Bill Tilley on notice that Benambra cannot be taken for granted.

"I'll continue to make sure that voices of health is advocated for, we offered voters for change and we also made it marginal and I think this result certainly achieved that but for the next four years the member will be on notice that Benambra must remain on the radar of our political leaders in Victorian Parliament, it can no longer be taken for granted".

Ms Hawkins is pleased to have gone through the process and encourages any young person, particularly women to get involved and have a voice

"I've found this campaign one of the most rewarding things that I've done, we were able to immobilise people within out community, speak within our community, and engage with our community. I think we took a lot away from this campaign, I strongly encourage any young person particularly females to step up, put their hand up and throw their hat into this political arena".

She says she would encourage any young person inclined to community to get involved.

"It's not a nasty ring of fire like they say that it is, and I just want to shout out team yellow because you should be rightly proud of this effort and contributing to this honourable final result"