Ed Cocks was officially declared the new Canberra Liberals MLA today, replacing Giulia Jones as member for Murrumbidgee.

In the countback of the 2020 ballot following Mrs Jones’s resignation last month, Mr Cocks received 4,481 of the votes, more than half the remaining votes. He needed a quota of 4,183 votes.

• Canberra Liberals’ Ed Cocks elected to ACT Legislative Assembly
• Giulia Jones reflects on a decade of ACT political service

“If I seem nervous or apprehensive, it’s because I feel a huge sense of both gratitude and responsibility,” Mr Cocks said.

“To my community and constituency who deserve a representative who will genuinely listen and represent them and their interests. To everyone who voted Liberal at the last election in the hope of a better government. I would not have this opportunity without them. To the Canberra Liberals – a great modern Liberal Party, filled with supportive and passionate members of our community who make a contribution every day, and who have supported me since I first cautiously took my first steps with the party almost a decade ago.”

Mr Cocks stood as a Canberra Liberals candidate in the 2016 and 2020 elections, and has been the party’s policy convenor since 2016.

Until yesterday, he worked as a public servant in the Department of Health, dealing with primary care reform, mental health and suicide prevention, telehealth, federal financial relations, diagnostic imaging, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.

“Canberra is an amazing city filled with amazing intelligent and talented people,” Mr Cocks said. “But we face real challenges.

“Local infrastructure and services have been neglected. People across my electorate feel like the government has walked away from them. Many have lost their trust in the integrity of the government. And in 2022, we are only just beginning our recovery from more than two years of fear and lockdowns which, however necessary, have helped drive inflation, impacted our children’s schooling, and left an indelible mark on mental health and wellbeing of so many in our community.

“These aren’t easy challenges, and that’s why I’m incredibly grateful for the chance to work with [party leader] Elizabeth Lee and the Canberra Liberals to bring Canberrans a strong and positive plan for the future.”

Ms Lee, Liberal MLAs Jeremy Hanson and Nicole Lawder, and Mr Cocks’s family attended the declaration.