Former prime minister Tony Abbott was safely returned to his seat in Parliament by the people of Warringah, despite an onslaught from nine other candidates, many of which were trying to make a statement of their discontent with his policies while in the top job. While Abbott got over the line without preferences, a tipster tells us that, when it comes to distributing preferences, the result is surprising: “AEC has advised that after final distribution of preferences, the TCP (two candidate preferred) result will change from Liberal first, Labor second. Result will be reset to Liberal first, Greens second.”

The AEC website still lists the two-candidate preferred as between Abbott and Labor’s Andrew Woodward, but when it comes to first preference votes, Woodward was only 2000 ahead of the Greens candidate Clara Williams-Roldan. The high number of independents and minor parties could play a role in deciding who really came in second. Of course, this doesn’t change the final result, and we doubt Warringah will ever be included as one of the Greens’ seats to target and pour money into, it’s good to note this might be the most successful the Greens will probably ever be in the Northern Beaches.