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Opposition Leader John Robertson insists Newcastle voters have "put their faith back in NSW Labor", despite mixed byelection results showing the state's second-biggest city has not wholeheartedly embraced the party five months out from the next state poll.
Two new MPs will join Labor's ranks in NSW Parliament after the party snatched wins in Newcastle and Charlestown over the weekend. The party now has 23 lower house seats, but remains 24 seats short of winning power outright.
Premier Mike Baird has warned the government "will be back stronger than ever next March", as it seeks to ensure Labor's resurgence in the Hunter is short-lived.
The byelections were brought about by the resignations of disgraced Liberal MPs Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell after a corruption inquiry into banned developer donations. The Liberal Party did not contest the seats as "atonement" for the scandals.
Labor's Charlestown hopeful Jodie Harrison leveraged her high profile as Lake Macquarie mayor to snare an emphatic win, attracting almost 50 per cent of the primary vote.
Ms Harrison was always expected to comfortably beat the field of lesser-known independent and minor party candidates.
Newcastle Labor candidate Tim Crakanthorp, a city councillor, enjoyed a less solid victory, winning about 37 per cent of the primary vote.
The result was 6 per cent up on Labor's vote at the 2011 election, when the party was on the nose across the state.
The win was widely interpreted as weaker than expected, given the absence of a Liberal candidate. However, Labor sources argued that business-aligned independent Karen Howard, who polled strongly, soaked up much of the conservative vote.
Labor now holds Newcastle on a 16 per cent margin on a two-candidate preferred basis.
Labor's NSW general secretary Jamie Clements said the Newcastle result was an improvement on the 2007 election and "comfortably" returned the seat to the party's fold.
Mr Robertson had been an almost constant presence in the Hunter throughout the campaign, and the party had promised a raft of sweeteners should it win government in 2015, including a state-of-the-art convention centre and redeveloping the Newcastle art gallery.
Mr Crakanthorp said Labor held Newcastle by a mere 1 per cent margin before losing it to the Liberals, and "given that context ... it is a good win".
"We certainly have to win the trust of the people of Newcastle ... [they] don't give their votes without a great deal of thought and they'll be watching me very closely," he said.
Premier Mike Baird reiterated his promise that "every project we have committed to, including the revitalisation of the Newcastle CBD, will be completed" should the government be returned next March.
Treasurer Andrew Constance claimed Newcastle voters were sceptical of Mr Robertson's "uncosted" convention centre proposal and "60 per cent of voters rejected him and his party".
ABC election analyst Antony Green said Labor's win in Newcastle was "not a massive victory". In Charlestown, he said, Labor "didn't have anyone running against them, basically ... there was no other candidate on the ballot paper who was an obvious place for the Liberal voters to go".
He predicted Labor would retain both seats at the next election "but I don't think they will be able to take Newcastle for granted".