Pru Goward won the seat of Goulburn on Saturday night, but she didn't have it all her own way.
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Country Labor candidate Ursula Stephens enjoyed a swing of around 20 per cent on election night, but it wasn't enough to topple Goward.
The margin between both parties reduced from 26 per cent to under seven per cent but most news services had given Goward the seat by around 10pm.
"I'm absolutely thrilled," she said.
"I knew it was going to be very, very difficult, a third of the electorate I'd never represented before and I didn't have a lot of time to get to know people in the new part of the electorate. I know a lot of people were very upset about Katrina (Hodgkinson) going, I know Katrina was upset, and that made it all the more difficult in Yass.
"I'm very touched that so many people in Yass had confidence in me."
Goward now has to make good on a number of election commitments she made during the campaign.
The Liberals promised a total of $15 million to fund extra overtaking lanes on the Barton Highway, a brand new ambulance station and Multi-Purpose Health Service in Yass, a $550,000 upgrade of the Murrumbateman Recreation Grounds, funding to fix water supplies for Yass, Binalong and Bowning, $25 million for mobile phone black spots – spread across NSW and improvements to Yass Junction Railway Station.
Ms Goward said her adversary, Country Labor's Ursula Stephens, was tough opposition.
"She ran a strong campaign, it was a very negative campaign," she said.
"She ran a six-month campaign attacking me and in the end of course that's going to have an impact, but I now have four years to prove myself to the Yass Valley and deliver for them the things they want, and will do so."
Ms Goward made special mention of the Transgrid employees in the Yass Valley that could be affected by the company's privatisation.
"I know the Transgrid workers are very upset and I want to sit down with them as soon as possible and talk through what we can do," she said.
"I know that we will always need Transgrid workers in Yass so I don't think the employment is going to go but we need to find out what their concerns are."
Ms Goward received 21,948 (48.89 per cent) formal votes on Saturday, while Ursula Stephens managed 15,564 (34.67 per cent).
Greens candidate Iain Fyfe received 3418 (7.61 per cent) formal votes, the Outdoor Recreation Party's Wallace Ashton garnered 2280 (5.08 per cent) votes, Christian Democratic Party's Adrian Van Der Byl managed 1079 (2.4 per cent) and the No Land Tax's Stephen Fitzpatrick claimed 600 formal votes (1.34 per cent).