could be australia's first aboriginal member of the house of reps member not before time
Result in Hasluck could take weeks From: AAP August 22, 2010 4:34PM
IT could be two weeks before Australia knows whether it has elected its first Aborigine to the House of Representatives, with the contest in Hasluck too close to call. On Sunday fewer than 400 votes separated the Liberal Party's indigenous candidate Ken Wyatt and sitting Labor member Sharryn Jackson.
A spokesman for the Australian Electoral Commission said it could take two weeks until a result was known, with approximately 15,000 votes still uncounted.
Dr Wyatt stopped short of declaring victory in Hasluck on Saturday night but said he was confident ``we will fall over the line''.
A former director of Aboriginal health in WA and in NSW, Dr Wyatt said he would feel immensely proud if he were able to make history by going to Canberra and he would work to improve indigenous health.
"I feel that I have the opportunity to address some of the issues that our people experience across the nation,'' he said.
"To infuse into some of the debates, matters around how we will address as a nation the gaps that still exist for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people.''
If Ms Jackson is defeated in Hasluck, it would be the former union official's second loss of the seat. She held it between 2001 and 2004, before regaining it at the 2007 election.
The ALP would then be left with only three of the 15 seats in Western Australia.
Ms Jackson said she expected to win if she picked up 70 per cent of the Greens' preferences and was not ready to concede defeat.
"It's been a tough fight for me in Hasluck in every election, but I'm in no way at a point to concede,'' she told Fairfax Radio.
