Mr McCormack will serve a fifth term in parliament after comfortably holding onto his seat with 47.31 of the primary vote at the time of writing, beating out Labor candidate Mark Jeffreson 65.01 per cent to 34.99 per cent in two party preferred vote.

But on the morning after the election Mr Jeffreson was upbeat in the face of defeat and happy to see Anthony Albanese elevated to PM.

"It's a wonderful feeling, however small a part, I've played a part of the election of a Labor government and that's a wonderful feeling," he said.

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The Labor candidate saw a 4 per cent swing his way this election in the two party preferred, however both he and Mr McCormack fared worse this time around with swings of -2.65 per cent and -12.62 per cent respectively.

Mr Jeffreson said that while the major parties saw swings against them, both locally and nationally, he believes that it was down to increased choice at the ballot box, which is ultimately good for democracy.

And he said that his parties' performance in the Riverina over the last two elections is a positive sign for the future.

"In two-party preferred we've had a 7 per cent turnaround over two elections. It's a hard seat," he said.

"I think that Riverina will find themselves heartened by having a Labor government federally. And that could translate locally."

Mr McCormack was straight back to work on Sunday, heading to events in Forbes and Temora, and he admitted that election night was "bittersweet".

"Certainly I'm very gratified with the result in Riverina," he said. "We took a bit of a haircut, I acknowledge that, but we had twice as many candidates as we did last time.

"It's a bit of a landscape shift and we'll just have to work with the parliament that we have."

As for election promises, he said he has a good relationship with the PM-elect and is ready to work with Labor. But he said the onus is now on the new government to deliver for the Riverina on funding for projects such as Wagga airport upgrades, which his government committed to before the election.

"It's incumbent on Mark Jeffreson to put pen to paper if Labor are committed to making sure that there's going to be infrastructure for regional Australia ... [councillor] Dan Hayes has got his great wish that Labor are in power, well put your voice to where it's needed now.

"I do worry about funding for regional Australia, because when the swathes of cuts that will be made, they will be made in Regional Australia first," he said.

As for the future, he said he hasn't yet had time to think about whether he will once again have a tilt at the National Party leadership, but he did hint that Barnaby Joyce's time at the top could be under review.

"We've taken a haircut ... others can look at the leadership of the National Party and have a think about how that might have affected city electorates. There's probably some sort of influence there that has played its part.

"We'll have some analysis and we'll have a look at it."

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