‘We've made history': Labor holds on to knife-edge seat of Bennelong
Laxale, a former Ryde mayor, was elected in 2022 and held the seat on a one per cent margin. It was only the second time Labor had won Bennelong in more than seven decades.
However, the boundary redraw that abolished the seat of North Sydney shifted Bennelong east, taking in more of Lane Cove and Hunters Hill, and turned it into a notionally Liberal seat with a wafer-thin margin of 0.04 per cent. The seat also covers Ryde, Eastwood and Gladesville.
Speaking after his victory, Laxale said: 'Our goal from day one was to win it, and then hold it. Halfway through that, we got a boundary redistribution which put a spanner in the works.
'But what I've learnt from the people of Lane Cove, Hunters Hill, Woolwich and Chatswood, is that obviously it's policies that matter, not the party you belong to.
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'They chose a candidate and a party that aligns with their values, and I'll represent them as hard as I can for the next three years.'
Yung has come under scrutiny for his campaign finance record after falsely claiming he had raised $60,000 during a dinner with former prime minister John Howard before the NSW election in 2019.
He also faced questions over his ties to a Chinese Communist Party-linked casino high roller.
Laxale, too, attracted unwanted attention in the final days of the campaign when he was forced to apologise for his father making homophobic remarks about a Liberal volunteer.
Yung took aim at the Labor Party when he addressed the scrutiny surrounding his campaign as he cast his vote on Saturday.
'I respect what the media does, and I'll continue to respect that, but can I just say that Labor has run a smear campaign against me.'
Laxale was asked whether he thought his father's comments had hurt his campaign in the critical final stretch, and said: 'We'll see what happens.
'We've been really focusing on cost of living and housing locally here … my dad regrets what he said, and he's very apologetic, and we'll move on from that.'
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