"I am joyous that we have been able to win Gilmore," Ms Phillips said.

While "sad that Labor has not got in nationally", she said wresting the seat was an achievement.

"This seat has been held by the Coalition for 23 years and there is such a mood for change out there in the electorate and that was seen in the result," she said.

While heading to Canberra in Opposition was not the plan, "I would not say I am daunted".

"I am still part of a fantastic Labor team and I will be out there every single day advocating for people in Gilmore. You just have to adjust and that is what I will do."

Ms Phillips lost by the slimmest of margins at the 2016 federal election. Disunity in the Liberal Party branch culminated in the retirement of sitting MP Ann Sudmalis deciding to retire and campaign for the Nationals this election. Endorsed candidate Grant Schultz ran as an Independent after Prime Minister Scott Morrison dumped him for North Shore resident Warren Mundine.

That worked in Labor's favour, Ms Phillips said.

"We had quite a good flow of preferences from Grant Schultz," she said.

"Having a coalition of candidates did not help them at all, but I don't think that is the sole contributing factor.

"I have always said this election is going to be tough, and I have done a lot of doorknocking. We have knocked and phoned about 50,000 households.

"I learnt that people are doing it really tough."

Ms Phillips said she was unsure what led to Labor's defeat nationally and said the party would have to go through its processes in choosing a replacement for retiring leader Bill Shorten.

Unsuccessful Gilmore Liberal candidate Warren Mundine agreed local party disunity was a big factor in the electorate falling to Labor, when across the country the ALP lost seats to the Coalition.

"Disunity lost the election for us in Gilmore. It's being going on for quite some time," Mr Mundine said, shortly after conceding to Ms Phillips.

"Essentially, we had three Coalition candidates running and the preference flows reflected the confusion that caused."

Mr Mundine apologised to the voters of Gilmore for not being able to keep the seat in Coalition hands: "Now the seat is not going to be part of the government."

Asked whether he would stay in the electorate, Mr Mundine was adamant he would: "Absolutely. I gave up my businesses to move here and I intend to stay."

He said the first order of business was clean up after the campaign, then working to rebuild unity within local party ranks.