At the
1999 election, he unexpectedly won the seat after receiving preferences from the independent,
One Nation and
Labor candidates. Ingram then held the balance of power with two other independents,
Russell Savage and
Susan Davies. The three independents would not support a minority government led by the incumbent Liberal Premier
Jeff Kennett and decided instead to support a minority Labor government under
Steve Bracks. This led to Kennett's decision to quit not only the premiership but politics altogether. At the
2002 election, Ingram was easily re-elected, polling 41% of the primary vote and 62% of the two candidate preferred vote. At the
2006 election, Ingram won with a slightly reduced primary vote of 38%, and 53% of the two candidate preferred vote. Ingram came under heavy criticism in mid-2007 when he failed to return from holidays to his electorate which had suffered devastating floods. Ingram was defeated in the
2010 Election as
John Brumby's Labor government was removed from office, and the
Coalition regained power across Victoria. Gippsland East was returned to
National Party hands, when their new candidate,
Tim Bull, gained a very large swing. Ingram received only 25.31% of the primary vote, and 37.94% of the
two-party preferred vote. ==References==