Member for Riverina Michael McCormack has retained his seat with a clear win over candidates in the 2025 Federal Election over the weekend. Mr McCormack had a 3.3 percent swing in his favour winning the two candidate preferred vote 63.01 percent to the Labor candidate Mark Jeffreson, on 36.99 percent. Mr McCormack won by a margin of 25,131 votes with a total vote count of 60,846 an increase on the previous election where he had received 59.17 percent of the vote over the Labor candidate's 40.29 percent of the vote. There was a 6.52 percent swing from Labor to Mr McCormack in first preference votes with the current member securing a total of 39,618 first preference votes compared to Mr Jeffreson with 17,506, Mark Craig from One Nation with 9,430, Independent Jenny Rolfe with 6,429, Independent James Gooden with 4,872, Pheonix Valxori for The Greens with 4,050, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Desiree Gregory with 3,710, Richard Foley for the Citizen's Party with 2,208, Libertarian Christine Onley with 2,039, Marg Burge for Family First with 1,946, Hilltops Councillor running as an Independent, Jake Davis with 1,712, Independent Grant Hardwick with 1,706 and Independent Barbara Baikie with 1,614. "Humbled to receive support from the Riverina electorate voters to continue to represent their interests in the Federal Parliament – an honour I have never taken for granted," Mr McCormack said. "I am truly grateful for the support. "Thank you to all of the volunteers who wore yellow shirts and spent time at polling booths on election day and on pre-poll letting people know the National Party of Australia fights and delivers for the regions. Your efforts are very much appreciated." Changing voting habits are also under the close eyes of analysts; with pre-polling becoming increasingly popular. Nearly 40% of voters elected to turn up before the Saturday polling day to cast their votes early, with A total of 6,778,467 pre-poll votes being taken as of polling day. 11,076 informal votes were made in the Riverina, or 10.1% of total votes for the electorate. Commonly known as 'donkey votes,' where voters either deliberately or accidentally cast an informal vote, meaning there was a swing this year of 3.04% toward nobody - 'outperforming' many of the 13 candidates running for office. Whilst the national result for the coalition showed a swing generally toward the ALP, the Nationals held on tightly for a clear win in the Riverina. In neighbouring Calare, Andrew Gee bucked this trend, securing a victory as an independent against Nationals candidate, Sam Farraway. Mr McCormack added in a post online that "The Federal Election may be over but that doesn’t mean the work stops – I will continue to put my shoulder to the wheel to fiercely advocate for the beautiful and vibrant Riverina electorate communities and the wonderful people who call this region home."
