On election night, Lyndal Howison was clapped into the room as the seat of Ryde was called for Labor.
She still leads the Liberals’ Jordan Lane, but that lead has been cut to just 235 votes, leaving the school teacher and former councillor facing a nervous wait.
“I’ve definitely been doing some mental gymnastics about what I do next,” told us this afternoon.
Dion Georgopoulos
“My position is that I have a job [as a school teacher] that I really love and I’m pretty passionate about, so I will happily go back to that, even though it would be a great privilege to be the member for Ryde, and I’m still hopeful of having that job.
“Hopefully under a Labor government the working conditions will be more favourable to teachers.”
Howison said that, regardless of the outcome, she was proud of the 9.2 per cent swing Labor achieved in Ryde and believes the seat vacated by retiring Liberal MP Victor Dominello will continue to be a key battleground in future elections.
“It was incredibly powerful to be there on polling day and to have teachers and nurses standing next to me saying, ‘Please don’t vote Liberal this time’,” she said. “The people of Ryde responded to that and the seat has now very much swung from having been safe [to now being marginal].”
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