Mr Whan sacrificed a high-level role in the state's upper house to run again in Monaro this election, sacrificing guaranteed pay until 2019 for a chance to represent his region in the lower house as Member for Monaro once again. However by Sunday afternoon, it was clear he'd lost hold of that dream, and he called Mr Barilaro to concede the seat.

"It's a bit shattering," Mr Whan said on Monday. "It's a sense of loss for me, I feel like I've had a loss in the family. It's not as serious of course, but it's been my life for a long time, and now I have to try and move on."

Known as a bellwether seat, the Monaro has only swapped hands without a change of government three times out of 29 elections. But if any election looked set to buck the trend, it was this one, with the Federal Government affecting the local workforce by cutting the federal public service, and a divisive NSW Government policy to sell state-owned electricity infrastructure.

In fact, Mr Whan said internal polling had him well in the lead late in the campaign until a Coalition TV and radio advertising blitz swung the balance. He said the Coalition was running five TV ads to every one Labor ad in the last week of the campaign.

"Our polling had me reasonably well ahead a week out from the election, but in the last few days, the Nationals' television advertising was quite intense on TV and radio," he said.

"A lot of it was extremely personal. That attack on me for being what they tried to term a 'career politician'- I'm not sure the community really should punish someone for trying to serve them for so long, but anyway, that's what some people did.

"But I did win Queanbeyan, so I still appreciate the support of the people in Queanbeyan, and I've had people making lovely comments about me in Queanbeyan, so I'm sorry that I've not been able to deliver for them," he said.

And Mr Whan said he's half-regretting not playing the man harder during the campaign, and taking aim at his Nationals' rival more personally.

"I didn't want to go negative and run a negative campaign. I could have run a negative, attack campaign against John really easily. But I didn't want to be negative, and perhaps that's a mistake and I've cost myself a spot in parliament," he said.

"He certainly had a strong personal following. I actually met people at the booths who told me they were Labor supporters, but they were there handing out for John because they were friends with him. He's certainly got a local following, and good on him," he said.

After a political career spanning nearly two decades, including as Member for Monaro from 2003 to 2011 and MLC from 2011 to 2015, Steve Whan will now retire from politics.