Labor Wins by a landslide!

The Liberal party (Conservatives to you) has been all but wiped out in yesterday's WA state election. It is looking likely that the Nationals will have more seats that the Liberals and become the opposition party. It looks like Labor will hold 52 of the 59 seats.

Labor has won the West Australian state election with Mark McGowan returned as Premier for a second term, in what has been described as a "disaster" for the WA Liberal Party.

In a devastating night for the Liberals, leader Zak Kirkup became the first WA major party leader to lose their own seat in 88 years, losing his own seat of Dawesville while declaring he took full responsibility for the party's election wipe-out.

It is too early to project a result in the state's Upper House where the rural areas have a larger say in the composition of the house.


Currently the State Governments are:

NSW - Liberal/Nationals
Victoria - Labor
Queensland - Labor
SA - Liberal/Nationals
Tasmania - Liberal
WA - Labor

In the territories:

ACT - Labor
NT - Labor

Of course the Federal Government is a Liberal/Nationals Coalition.

It appears that the pandemic as increased the popularity of the sitting goverment no matter which party. The WA Government closed the state border for 10 months.

Re: Labor Wins by a landslide!

Bruce I lived in WA for most of my teenage years. A southern Perth suburb named Salter Point on the Canning River. It was part of Manning which could have been termed as an "upper working class" area. It is now a suburb in it's own right. I remember Perth as isolated, wealthy and conservative. The Liberals were always a dominant force and became more so after the mining booms of the 1960s. It is a very different place now although still one that is easily lead by a strong personality I reckon. Mark McGowan is one of them. Not saying he isn't an effective leader either. He's obviously doing something right. But the wheel will turn. It always does.

Re: Labor Wins by a landslide!

Despite the Labor Party's win in WA this is not the view shared across the nation. According to the Sydney Morning Herald a leaked survey shows that Labor is not a happy bunny in NSW. Presumably leaked by someone in her own party to destabilise the opposition leader it says:

NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay would lose her own seat and the party would suffer its worst primary vote in almost 120 years if a state election were held now, according to internal polling that is likely to put further pressure on the embattled opposition leader.

The poll predicts Labor’s primary vote has crashed to 23.9 per cent, a figure lower than the landslide loss of 2011 under former premier Kristina Keneally (25.6 per cent) and an 8.4 per cent drop in primary vote on the 2019 election. It would be the lowest primary vote recorded by NSW Labor since 1904.

It seems to support the idea that during the pandemic incumbency is even more of an advantage than normal.

Is this true in your country's political scene?

Re: Labor Wins by a landslide!

Sorry to hear your bad news Bruce.

Re: Labor Wins by a landslide!

Just heard that Corbyn is at the docks waving a ten pound note!

Re: Labor Wins by a landslide!

The Legalise Cannabis Party may take a WA upper house seat at the expense of the Greens. It look like Labor will have control of the upper house such is the depth of the Labor victory. Perhaps the Gerrymander in the upper house will be broken

The Liberals have suddenly become a party of gender equity in the lower house, prior to the election less than 10% of Liberal MPs were female but now 50% of the Liberal MPs are female with one male and one female Liberal MPs left. This may change as the final preferences are counted In fact there are more MPs with the first name "Lisa" than there are Liberal MPs.

The four National Party MPs will form the opposition - the Liberals and Nationals are not in coalition in WA.