In a cruel twist of irony, sentiment in Gilmore is the polar opposite of what's being felt around the country. While nationally, Labor is soul-searching to try to work out just how it snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, in Gilmore, the Coalition is raking over the wreckage of its loss.
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Fiona Phillips did something remarkable on Saturday. She wrested a seat that had been in Coalition hands for 23 years and, in doing so, bucked the national trend away from the Labor Party.
While credit must be given to her relentless campaigning over the past three years, the win was also made possible by the wretched disunity in Coalition ranks at the local level and the intervention of the Prime Minister in parachuting Warren Mundine over the top of Grant Schultz. The entry of another conservative candidate, Katrina Hodgkinson for the Nationals, also helped Mrs Phillips over the line.
The three-way conservative contest - Mundine vs Schultz vs Hodgkinson - split the Coalition vote and the resulting muddle over preferences did Labor a great favour.
The national numbers tell us Scott Morrison led a brilliant campaign across the country; the Gilmore numbers tell us his intrusion into local Liberal affairs was an abject disaster. Effectively, it delivered the ALP its only gain in NSW.
Gilmore showed, as it did during Tony Abbott's landslide in 2013, that it is willing to exercise its own voting logic. In 2013, Ann Sudmalis won the seat for the Liberals after a messy preselection but on a reduced margin. In 2016, her margin shrank even more.
This time around, again after a messy preselection, the seat fell.
So, what does it mean, having a new MP sitting on the opposition benches?
For a start, the sky will not fall in. Mrs Phillips may have won the seat but it will still be very much in play come the next election. As long as it remains on the radar of the policy makers in government and in opposition, it will get the attention it so lacked as a safe seat.
To be an effective MP, Mrs Phillips will have to fight not just the government. She will have to be prepared to take on her own party bosses when she goes in to bat for her constituents.
She will also have to work constructively and collaboratively with her state counterparts, who have said that is their intention.
We wish Mrs Phillips well in this new and challenging endeavour.