Labor Premier Roger Cook celebrates his election victory on Saturday with his family. Photo: Roger Cook Instagram.
The Australian Labor Party has been returned to power in Western Australia with a slightly reduced but still significant margin following last weekend’s state election.
In his first election as Premier, Roger Cook took his party to its third straight convincing win despite polling suggesting Labor is slightly on the nose nationally, and that several key marginal seats are up for grabs at the next federal election.
Cook took over as Premier in late 2023 after the retirement of Mark McGowan who had swept Labor to power in a 2021 landslide on the back of his hugely popular COVID policies.
The result was called by noted ABC election analyst Antony Green less than two hours after polls closed on Saturday. At last count on Tuesday afternoon, Labor was predicted to win 41 seats, the Liberal Party had won five seats, and the Nationals four.
It said Labor had won 59 per cent of the vote and the Liberals 41 per cent on a two-party preferred estimate.
The Liberals and Nationals held just five seats between them coming in to the election, so they have picked up an additional four seats, but the result is still a compelling one. Nine seats are still in doubt, but Labor has long passed the target of 30 seats to form government.
The seats in doubt include Fremantle where incumbent Labor member Simone McGurk had seen a 28 per cent swing against her towards Teal independent Kate Hulett, and Albany where Labor member Rebecca Stephens has conceded the election trailing by more than five percentage points, although the result is yet to be declared.
Elsewhere, Warren-Blackwood remains undecided but Labor’s Jane Kelsbie is expected to lose to Nationals’ Bevan Eatts, Labor’s Kevin Michel looks set to retain Pilbara despite a 16 per cent swing against him, and Kalgoorlie’s Labor incumbent Ali Kent has also seen a swing of 11.2 per cent away from her but still leads by a slim margin.
No doubt the Liberal Party is disappointed with the result, especially with some seats which had long-voted Liberal until the 2021 landslide including South Perth, Bateman, Riverton, Scarborough and possibly Nedlands all being retained by Labor.
Liberal energy spokesperson Steve Thomas told media it had been a “tough night”. “There’s a number of these seats that we needed to win and pick up, and pick up comfortably, and we obviously, at this point, haven’t done any of those things today,” he said.
The election was tarnished slightly by reports that polling booths had run out of ballot papers, including at booths in the seats of Shenton Park, Spearwood and Forrestfield, and that voters in remote areas were forced to queue for hours to vote.
But the WA Electoral Commission said no constituents were denied the opportunity to vote, and said it was only aware of one issue in Cockburn.
“At this point the only report from our staff of ballot paper shortages was St Jerome’s Primary School in Cockburn where they ran out of Legislative Council ballot papers,” a WAEC official said in a statement.
“This was near close of polling and voters were advised to wait for more ballot papers to arrive and they were then able to vote shortly after.”
WA Opposition Leader Shane Love said an inquiry into the allegations against the WAEC should be investigated by the new parliament.
“The first order of business for the new parliament must be to suspend the Electoral Commissioner while a thorough inquiry into the conduct of the WAEC at the election is held,” he said.
“This must include whether the electoral commissioner was competent and capable of performing their duties.
“These are not minor administrative issues,” he added. “They go to the heart of public confidence in our democratic system.”
Premier Cook told media on Sunday that the reports of prolonged wait times were unacceptable, and that he would be briefed in the next few days.
“I just want to say, it was unacceptable yesterday, the waiting times for people, having to wait to vote,” he said.
“It was unacceptable the WAEC ran out of some ballots at some booths.
“We were disappointed with the WAEC’s running of the election yesterday and I’m sure a lot of people shared our frustration.”
