Ms Patten said preferences from Aaron and Nathan Purcell, who stood for their father James Purcell's  Vote 1 Local Jobs party in the Upper House seat of Northern Metropolitan, had helped get her elected.

The sons stood with the aim of assisting get Ms Patten get elected and they finished up being top spot on the ballot paper, which proved instrumental.

Mr Purcell said his sons both got about 1.2 per cent of the vote.

The former upper house member for Western Victoria said his sons did not stand as part of a deal with preference whisperer Glenn Druery, who worked with numerous micro-parties to exchange preferences despite only receiving a small percentage of  primary votes. 

Ms Patten said she was locked out of negotiations with the minor parties because she refused to be part of Mr Druery's collective.

"I was pretty nervous in the lead-up to the election and some people said maybe it was not the brightest thing to have done, but I had to stand by my principles," she said.

 "I've worked well with James in the past, he supported me this time and that's why he put up candidates.

"It did help. In the end I did get over the line fairly comfortably. The Purcell votes went to me and that was certainly appreciated."

Ms Patten said she had enormous respect for Mr Purcell.

"He's a great guy. He proved very effective in the upper house. He had a to-do list and I know he ticked off quite a few things," she said.

Mr Purcell said Ms Patten had contact him to thank him for his support.

"Fiona rang. She was very happy. She deserves to be there. We need people like her to look at all the options. Fiona does that, she does it well, she's a nice person," he said.

Before the election Mr Purcell said his sons were not political stooges.

Mr Purcell has a strong interest in preferences after they allowed him to build on a primary vote of less than two per cent to get elected to the upper house in 2014. 

His primary vote was at that time the lowest ever that allowed a candidate to get elected to the Victorian upper house.