Millions of dollars of election pledges made by the Labor Party - including $5 million for Her Majesty's Theatre, $10 million for an extension to Ballarat Airport - were not matched by the coalition. And as the government defied the pollsters, it became clear they will hold the purse-strings for another electoral term.

So, what now for the shadow health minister and the projects she hoped a Shorten government would fund? First, she said she was "absolutely delighted" to be re-elected. "I want to thank the Ballarat people so much for putting their faith in me once again," she told The Courier yesterday.

"This is an amazing place to live and to represent. It's such an honour to be retained as the member for Ballarat."

She said it was too soon after polling day to define what went wrong with the Labor campaign on a national level.

"My view is that it was always going to be tight. We will analyse and reflect on what it was we were offering that obviously wasn't what the people of Queensland in particular wanted."

Ruling herself out of the leadership contest likely to take place over the next few months, Ms King said it was crucial to regroup quickly.

"There are lots of people counting on us, including the people who did vote Labor in this election across the country and in my own community, who expect us to pull up our socks and get on with the business of representing them."

As for the major project funds earmarked for Ballarat, Ms King said the lack of electoral pledges from the Liberal Party was "one of the biggest disappointments of this campaign."

"The Liberal party really didn't treat this seat very well," she said. "We didn't get the sort of election promises we should have."

"We are very lucky, frankly, that we have had a State Labor government that has invested so heavily here. Obviously I hoped to get a Federal Labor government to match and do those things as well but my job now will be to see if I can deliver those projects from opposition.

"There are things that are very important to us - Her Majesty's in particular, and the airport, as well as some of the smaller things like the extensions to our schools."

She said that once the dust has settled following the election that she would write to ministers to outline the promises made during the election campaign.

"I will reiterate the importance of this seat as a regional centre. And I will continue to use as much moral persuasion as I can from opposition, as I have done in the past, to try and get investment."

How much clout would she have with government, The Courier wondered, given her sometimes adversarial approach, which has included describing Coalition communications as lies at least three times in recent weeks?

"That's the hurly burly of politics. We're all used to that," she said. "There are a lot of mistruths about Labor's policy positions, particularly told through social media.

"I'm going to continue to call those things out. The life of politics is to call those things out as well as [prosecuting] your own agenda."

Having the Coalition back in power also made her concerned about the amount of people coming to her with NDIS complaints. "They are in desperate and awful circumstances," she said. "I am worried that that is only going to increase, frankly. I want to say to everybody that my office is open."

Elected for the seventh time, Ms King is now set to become the most enduring member in the electorate's history before the next campaign. The former Liberal member Dudley Erwin served from 1955 to 1975, a milestone Ms King is due to pass in two years. Given the bruising nature of politics, as well as the federal disappointment for Labor, how does she feel about her job now?

"It still feels new to me," she said. "It feels like yesterday that I first stood to represent the seat. It's an amazing opportunity to meet people, talk to people, try and advocate for them, facilitate funding opportunities."

"It's my home, it's the place that I love more than anywhere else in the world. Being able to represent it and hopefully continue to represent it is certainly something that I aspire to."

"So long as people want me obviously."

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