Britnell declared the winner for South West Coast

“People have a right to know there is a fight for this role, that it is not a lay down misere,” she told the declaration of the poll on Monday that announced her as the successful candidate for South West Coast.

Mrs Britnell said there were “no safe seats in this day and age” and she enjoyed the fight to retain her seat.

“People are holding you to account and that is how it should be,” she said.

She was “proud, humbled and honoured” to be re-elected for the next four years, she said.

Mrs Britnell won the seat with 21,482 votes after preferences, ahead of Labor’s Kylie Gaston who had 19,582 votes after the distribution of preferences.

She won the seat with 5.62 per cent margin on two-party preferred basis.

Analysts have said Mrs Britnell suffered about an eight per cent swing against her but did well to hold the seat in what was a bloodbath for the Liberals on a statewide basis.

Mrs Britnell said roads, the hospital and trains services were among the top priorities she would continue pursuing during the next four years, she said.

Good roads were “a right not a privilege.”

The region also needed hospitals that could provide services that “fits our region,” Mrs Britnell said.

The Labor state government had unfortunately not made any funding commitments to upgrade the region’s hospitals, she said.

On trains, she said it did not make sense the Warrnambool trains service was replaced with buses last week because of hot weather.

A better service was needed that was able to cope with hot weather, she said.

On other issues, Mrs Britnell said the region had lots of jobs and needed to make sure it had good services, such as health and housing, for the people coming to the area to fill those job vacancies.

In other developments regarding the seat, unsuccessful independent candidate Michael Neoh said he would consider standing for the Upper House seat of Western Victoria in future rather than for the Lower House seat of South West Coast.

Mr Neoh said he believed both Liberal and Labor voters were looking to support an independent in the Upper House but with James Purcell switching from the Upper House to the Lower House, there had been no prominent independent to support.

Most voters had voted above the line on the ballot paper for the Upper House with no idea where their preferences were going, he said.

This had allowed micro parties to gain more support.

The successful candidates for the five Upper House Western Victoria seats have yet to be announced.

However Monash University political commentator believes Animal Justice party candidate Andy Merrick is set to join Labor’s Jaala Pulford and Gayle Tierney and the Liberals’ Bev McArthur and Joshua Morris as the five successful candidates.

But ABC News political analyst Antony Green has a different view. He is predicting the Liberals’ Joshua Morris will be tipped out in favour of Derryn Hinch Justice Party candidate Stuart Grimley.