THE Labor Party has been told: Don't take Cabramatta for granted.
Fairfield Mayor Nick Lalich was given a fright on Saturday after narrowly winning the seat. Voters delivered a clear message to Labor with a 23percent swing against the party.
The Liberals' Dai Le has vowed to continue the fight and will set up a new office in Cabramatta soon to start her 2011 campaign. She will move back into the electorate as soon as son Ethan, 5, finishes his first year of school.
``I'm so grateful to the 43percent of people who voted for me,'' Ms Le said.
``I'm going to make sure the people of Cabramatta are not let down and I'll be holding Mr Lalich to all of his promises right up to 2011.''
Mr Lalich said he was exhausted from eight weeks of campaigning, both for the council elections and the byelection, but he and Premier Nathan Rees would be responding to the ``caning''.
``I put the vote against us down to three main things: the anti-State Government factor; the Reba factor; and the car parking factor,'' Mr Lalich said.
``Under new Premier Nathan Rees we will be addressing these concerns, particularly calling on the Federal Government to help fund more car parking on sites outside of the CBD, for which acquiring land alone will be upwards of $7million.
I'm also hoping there may be funding in the November mini-budget for more commuter car parking.''
On Monday, Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell and Liberal MLC Charlie Lynn joined Ms Le in Canley Heights to thank the community.
``[Dai] has really struck a chord out here and the longer she has to meet people the more people will vote for her in 2011,'' he said.
Mr Lynn said the Opposition had been ``focussed and energised'' by Ms Le's campaign, and there would be no shortage of shadow ministers coming to Cabramatta to help her campaign.
Mr O'Farrell visited the electorate three times in the lead-up to the election, as Mr Rees came once.
Greens candidate Lindsay Langlands also polled well, taking nearly 10percent of votes, the highest for a Greens candidate in the area.