David Coleman keeps Liberals 'in the game' in 2016 federal election

Liberal David Coleman is expected to finish about 2000 votes in front after a swing of between one to 1.5 per cent, which is far less than the 4.2 per cent swing to Labor in NSW at the end of the federal election count on Saturday.

Winning Banks is a huge achievement by Mr Coleman given results in other Sydney electorates, and a vital victory for the Coalition as it struggles to form government following the knife-edge election.

The Liberal vote in Banks will be higher than the party’s vote in NSW.

Mr Coleman has 51.2 per cent of the vote, compared with the 50.2 per cent Liberal result in NSW.

Mr Gambian called Mr Coleman on Monday morning to congratulate him and thank him for “a clean and respectful campaign”.

Mr Coleman thanked voters for “putting their faith in me for another three years”.

“I am genuinely privileged to have had the role of being a member of parliament,” he said.

”It has meant being involved with literally thousands of people, and it is humbling to have the support of the electorate for another three years.

“I am looking forward to continuing to represent the issues that concern our community, including  improvements to preserve the Georges River environment and road projects such as WestConnex.”

Mr Gambian said he and his team were incredibly proud of the campaign they ran and grateful for the support from voters.

”Obviously, we didn’t get there on the day,” he said.

“It is very close, but I think the signs are are that it would be very surprising if things turned around.

“I rang David and congratulated him on running a clean, respectful campaign.

“No one thought we could win but we came a lot closer than expected.

“That’s testament to the huge number of our workers who put their heart and soul into the campaign.”

Mr Gambian said the Liberal campaign contrasted with the smear tactics used in the western part of the electorate during last year’s state election.

He said a fear campaign from another source, directed at the Chinese community, was “unfortunate”.

”I don’t really know where it came from, but it clearly has had an impact on the election,” he said.

Banks was among a number of marginal seats targeted with attacks over same-sex marriage, Safe Schools and asylum seekers, largely via the Chinese language messaging app WeChat.

The Christian Democratic Party was blamed for the Chinese language messages, but a spokesman said they didn't carry its authorisation because they had been created by "passionate supporters" from Chinese Christian churches.

Mr Gambian said he stood by the stand he took on such issues.

“At the end of the day if I lost votes because I stood up for the rights of same sex couples or transgender kids, I can live with that,” he said.

Mr Gambian said his focus would be on his family now the election was over.

On election night, he and his wife Kate announced to supporters they were expecting their second child at the end of the year.

One of his first outings after the election was to take their daughter, Milly, 2 ½, to Luna Park.

A Liberal Party source said the swing to Labor in the St George portion of Banks was only about 0.5 per cent.

Bigger swings were recorded in areas in the south-west, which were added to the electorate in the redistribution.

The Hurstville pre-poll voting result was the highlight for the Liberals, where a positive swing of 4.7 per cent was recorded.

Oatley West was the best booth overall, with a positive 2.7 per cent swing, and the result in the other Oatley booth was also very strong.