The federal electoral boundary redistribution worked in the favour of the ALP, which picked up the seat of Paterson for the first time in 15 years.

Heddon Greta-raised radio personality Meryl Swanson became Paterson’s first female MP.

Paterson was widely predicted to be the closest race in the Hunter, but it was where the biggest swing occurred. 

By Sunday afternoon Ms Swanson had secured an 11 per cent swing in the redistributed seat.

She had 53,807 votes to Liberal candidate Karen Howard’s 33,911 on a two-party preferred basis.

Paterson, formerly held by retiring Liberal Bob Baldwin since 2001, picked up traditional Labor strongholds like Abermain, Weston and Kurri Kurri in the redraw.

Addressing supporters at her campaign function at Maitland City Bowling Club just after 8.30pm Saturday, Ms Swanson said she would "give you everything I can" to make politics "better". 

"I can't do it on my own and I'm not looking to do it on my own, I need to bring people with me," she said.

"That, I think, is the key to being a successful local member. You need to bring your community together."

Incumbent MP Joel Fitzgibbon retained the federal seat of Hunter.

Mr Fitzgibbon declared victory for himself about 8.30pm on Saturday after he secured a 25 per cent margin from rival Nationals candidate Ruth Rogers in the two-party preferred vote.

As of 9.30pm on Saturday, 59 of 68 polling places in the electorate had been counted, with Mr Fitzgibbon recording 62.7 per cent of the two-party preferred vote and Ms Rogers gaining 37.3 per cent.

His two-party preferred winning margin in 2013, over Nationals candidate Michael Johnsen, was about seven per cent.

Mr Fitzgibbon said on Saturday night the seat of Hunter looked vastly different in 2016 than it did in 2013, after a nationwide boundary redistribution.

He said he had expected Labor would do well in Hunter and the neighbouring seat of Paterson.

“[Hunter] is a different seat but [there are] strong communities of interest still, demographically not much has changed,” he said.

“I always expected we’d win Paterson, we have an excellent candidate there in Meryl Swanson.”

Mr Fitzgibbon speculated on election night that a hung Parliament could be the result.

“Twenty-one seats only three years after an election loss usually would be described as a no-brainer, a hopeless situation, but while it’s early tonight it looks like the swing to [Labor] is going to be larger than anticipated,” he said.

“I think we might be headed for a hung Parliament, in other words Malcolm Turnbull has not won this election.

“It just reminds people that they won last time on a three-point slogan: ‘stop the boats, get rid of the carbon tax, get rid of the mining tax’, but people want something more from government than that.”