Ms Watson and a few dozen Labor supporters attended Oak Flats Bowling Club after polls closed.

Results thus far show she has been re-elected on a primary vote of between 53 per cent and 54 per cent.

Ms Watson currently has an estimated 7.8 per cent margin.

The Liberal Party has so far suffered a swing of nearly seven percent on the primary vote.

Ms Watson said she was “humbled” by the news.

She said many voters throughout both the electorate and elsewhere had also sent a clear message to the Baird government regarding the divisive poles and wires issue.  

“Whatever government is going to be elected tonight, I’ll work with them, as long as I can deliver for my electorate,” she said.

“It’s an amazing feeling, it’s great.”

The seat of Shellharbour has been a Labor held seat since its inception in 2007.

Ms Watson won the seat in 2011 with 46.7 per cent of votes against rival Liberal candidate Larissa Mallinson (31.4 per cent). 

Ms Watson said her priorities remained the same, including kick-starting the Albion Park Rail bypass and upgrading Shellharbour Hospital.

“I’ll continue to fight for them,” she said.

Ms Watson said there were lessons acquired during her first term that she would apply throughout her second.

“I think compromise is probably something that you learn; in politics, people really need to understand that compromise is how politics works, and it’s really important that you can do that,” she said.

Liberal candidate Mark Jones visited the club shortly before 8.30pm to concede.

The Liberals have reiterated that their government will spend $550 million to build the long-awaited Albion Park Rail bypass if re-elected, and that a re-elected Baird government will give the green light to the major redevelopment of Shellharbour Hospital with a $251 million investment.

Mr Jones felt he had given the campaign his all in a “very tough seat for us”.

“We’ve taken the fight well and truly up to Labor and delivered on a number of fantastic projects, which hopefully when the result’s all said and done tonight, Mike Baird will form government again and we’ll be able to deliver on those promises for the people of Shellharbour.

“I’m very proud of being able to take up the fight to Anna Watson, and I’ll be here over the next four years, still working within the Shellharbour community, and continuing to make sure that she is held accountable by the Shellharbour community for all of her actions.”

Greens candidate and Shellharbour councillor Peter Moran, who has thus far attained about 9.5 per cent of the primary vote, said the significant swing to Labor in the seat was disappointing.  

“It’s disappointing, because we’ve seen both the Coalition and the Labor Party look to pay much more attention to this seat in recent times, simply because it was seen as becoming more marginal,” he said.

“I fear that the community will lose out by swinging back to Anna and making it a more safe Labor seat, I think we won’t get the attention from government that we would have hoped for if it had remained a more marginal seat.”

He said over the past three elections there had been an upward trajectory in the Greens vote.

“It’s not really about whether we increase our vote or anything like that.

“The main thing is that we’re putting forward a suite of policies, many of which are now being adopted by the major parties… The good thing is, we’ve given the people a choice.”