Lisa Chesters officially declare Bendigo's federal MP as Labor looks to electorate as example of what went right for the party

Labor's Lisa Chesters was officially declared the Bendigo electorate's member of parliament by the Australian Electoral Commission on Friday.

Ms Chesters enjoyed a 5.09 per cent swing of the two-party preferred with 59,163 votes (58.96 per cent) coming her way ahead of 41,175 (41.04 per cent) for Liberal candidate Sam Gayed.

"There's still a lot of hurt and soul searching about what went wrong (for Labor but) to be officially declared the MP is such an honour," she said.

"It's exciting, because you (can) think about what's our role for the next three years, what are we fighting for?

"There's going to be a proper and frank review and that process has started."

Ms Chesters said the swing to Labor in Bendigo was against the nationwide trend of the federal election.

"(Already) people are getting out into the communities to ask what went wrong? Equally, we're getting out to communities like Bendigo's electorate and saying what went right?" she said.

"We had a good swing to us n our primary of about five per cent, which was against the tide of the rest of the country.

"So people are keen to know why it is Bendigo got behind Labor's vision and got behind my plan."

The first preference count gave Ms Chesters 43,803 votes with Liberals' Sam Gayed securing 31,852 and Greens candidate Robert Holian 11,706.

Pauline Hanson's One Nation candidate Vaughan Williams finished with 6205 first preference votes ahead of United Australia Party candidate Adam Veitch (4301), Julie Hoskin of Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party (1650) and Rise Up Australia Party's Sharon Budde (1451).

Ms Chesters said she believed grassroots campaign aided her success in Bendigo and helped engage voters.

"We had a clean campaign because have our own media market in Bendigo and are able to debate local issues and stories," she said. "That didn't happen in other parts of the country.

"We also had one of lowest informal votes in the country (4.02 per cent), that's because our electorate engages.

"A big part of that is the local media and the grassroots nature of our election campaign."

At a national level, Ms Chesters returned from Canberra this week follow the Labor caucus that saw Anthony Albanese installed as leader of the ALP.

"He is a different leader to Bill Shorten. They sat next to each other and did the handover in the most respectful and mature way," Ms Chesters said.

"They said 'look, Bill and Tania Plibersek have taken this personally but we have to take responsibility.

"We're a Labor movement and that movement is bigger than one person. Anthony Albanese is the new leader, we have a new leadership team and we're going to rally behind that."

Ms Chesters said the ALP was more mature now and the potential of Bill Shorten being on the front bench would be great for the party.

"(Bill) is young and keen to be involved," she said. "He has extended the olive branch, as has Tania, to say they still want to be a part of the front bench and that's great for Labor (given) their experience and commitment to the cause.

"That's the difference between Labor today and the Labor of the past, that level of maturity and commitment within our front bench.

"There is a determination to do better and be in a Labor government come the next federal election. That's the goal everyone is now focused on."

Ms Chesters will also focus on lobbying for funding of important projects in the Bendigo electorate.

"I have already written to the prime minster and said the Liberals didn't have a plan for Bendigo, adopt mine," she said. "That's $30 mllion in projects for the electorate from the Daylesford-Hanging Rock Rail Trail to Bendigo's airport terminal expansion.

"It's a no brainer to fund the airport terminal. It's a great project, we want Qantas to expand their flights, so we need to expand the terminal.

"I'm also calling (the Liberal government) to back the Bendigo Agricultural Show Society project. That's an asset that is ageing and, with a little bit of love some strategic investment, could get back up to a world-class standard."

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