Squiz Shortcuts - The West Australian election

Your Shortcut to… The West Australian election

Western Australia is about to go to the polls for the first time since the Labor government won an historic landslide victory in 2021. Since then, the state’s premier has stepped down, there’s been a change to the voting system, and a major media personality has entered the political arena. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll get you across:

• the state of play

• the main names to know

• and what impact the WA poll might have on the upcoming federal election 

Prefer this in your ears?

Listen to our podcast 🎧

Listen time: 9 minutes

Wine that you won’t whine about

Shopping for wine shouldn't feel like a chore or a rip-off. Naked Wines is all about making it easy to enjoy top-notch wines at fair prices, minus the hassle. Get $100 off your first 12 wines with Naked Wines and sip on world-class vino at insider prices. With access to over 50 top Aussie and Kiwi winemakers, including award-winners, it's a win-win for wine lovers and makers alike. Visit Naked Wines to learn more. Cheers to that.

Squiz the Shortcut

Where do things stand politically at the moment in WA?
Well, it has a Labor government that’s quite a standout as far as governments go. In 2021, after steering the state through the Covid-19 pandemic with relatively little disruption to its way of life, Premier Mark McGowan was elected to a second term with the biggest margin in the history of Australian politics. He took a very strong stance on the borders during the pandemic, and he’s known as ‘State Daddy’...

Great nickname
It is… He was immensely popular, and not just because of his tough border stance - a decision the Liberal Party at the time opposed - but he also oversaw a strong economy and period of stability. 

Hang on, he was?
In 2023 McGowan stepped down - saying he was exhausted…

A pandemic will do that… Who’s in charge now?
Roger Cook stepped up to the plate - he served under McGowan as Deputy Premier since 2017, and he was Health Minister during the pandemic, so he’s got a lot of goodwill in WA as well.

What else can you tell me about him?
He’s a member of the party’s left faction and you might’ve seen him in the national news recently for using a less-than-complimentary term to describe US Vice President JD Vance - which he later apologised for. 

And what about the other side?
So, because of that landslide we talked about at the 2021 election, the situation in the opposition is pretty unusual…

Why is that?
At the time, the Liberal Party had a young leader named Zak Kirkup who took over a few months beforehand. And the result was so bad that he actually conceded defeat before the election took place. He lost his own seat when it happened, and quit politics shortly after that. 

Yikes…
Yep... “Landslide” doesn’t begin to cover it. It was more like a wipeout. The Liberal Party lost all but two seats in the 2021 election - which means that the National Party is actually the official opposition in WA - because they won 4 seats. For context, Labor has 53 seats.

Got it. Who’s leading the Nats?
That would be Shane Love, the official Opposition leader - but anyone who caught the WA leaders debate might have been a bit confused, because he wasn’t there… The Liberal Party leader Libby Mettam was there instead because she’s still considered the ‘unofficial’ Opposition leader.  

Explain that for me?
One of the reasons is that, if you look at the polls, they’re predicting the Liberal Party will regain enough seats to become the Opposition again - but it will be a result more like 2017, which was still considered a landslide but not quite the wipeout of 2021.

Anyone else I should know about?
Aside from these leaders, there’s one other big name making waves in the election - it’s a name that’s probably familiar to Squizers in other states - Basil Zempilas…

Let’s say I haven’t…
OK, Basil is a former/current sports commentator, radio host and newsreader. He’s a big name in WA and has a strong association with the dominant media organisation, 7 West Media… In 2020 he went into politics and won the position of Lord Mayor of Perth. He’s now making the jump into state politics, running as the Liberal candidate in the seat of Churchlands. 

So that’s a seat to watch?
Sure is… He’s tipped by some to be the next leader of the Liberal Party in WA, which means he might be a future premier if it can end this run of Labor dominance. But Churchlands is an extremely marginal seat - currently held by Labor’s Christine Tonkin - and there’s an independent candidate running there too, so the competition’s tight.

Good to know… What are some of the big issues in this election?
Health is one - there was an incident recently where an ambulance took almost half an hour to get to a 39-year old man who had a heart attack so that’s an issue Libby Mettam has been pressing hard on. Cost of living is also a big concern in Perth, as it is everywhere, but the economy is seen as a strength of Labor’s rather than something to be fixed…

Give me the numbers
The state government had a surplus of $4.5 billion last year. Gross state product per person is higher than any other state and well above the national average. When Cook entered his campaign launch, the song he picked was ‘Don’t Change’... 

So, is anything likely to change? 
One big thing to change in this election will be the way the Legislative Council - that’s the upper house of the parliament in WA - is elected. It was a decision made by Labor under McGowan, and it stands to particularly impact the Nationals.

How will it work now?
WA used to have a system where they elected members of the upper house from regions - but now the whole state is considered one big electorate, so it will be a one-vote, one-value system. 

What was the thinking behind it?
The argument is that, before now, voters in Perth - where 75% of the population lives - only got to elect about half of the members of the Legislative Council. This meant that in some regions, people’s votes carried a lot more weight. 

How do the other parties feel about it?
They’ve criticised the move - they say it takes away power from regional communities and rural areas - and it’s likely to hurt the Nationals, as they’re typically popular with country voters.

What has the fallout been?
To counter this, some Nationals candidates are running in metro areas in this election - which was rare before - to try and get their message across with Perth voters…

Was it always going to happen?
No… We should note it’s a change that the WA Labor government said wasn’t on the agenda, but then they backflipped. And one of the key reasons they gave for doing that, was that an MP from the Daylight Saving party - who received 98 first preference votes - was elected to the upper house. 

How does that impact Labor?
The upper house is the place where Labor is most likely to lose ground - meaning it won’t have a majority in both houses, so it’ll be harder to get legislation through. So a lot of people will be watching to see how the change impacts the results this time around. 

Will the WA election result have any bearing on the upcoming federal election?
It’ll be used as a temperature check for sure… The polls are predicting a Labor win, but they’re showing there will likely be a swing towards the Liberals… As we’ve outlined, it’s a state where Labor is very popular, so any swing against it could be claimed by the Coalition as a sign of momentum as they head into the federal election - and vice versa if Cook outperforms the polls. 

It’s all happening…
Get the popcorn ready.

Onto our Recommendations

Reading: This ABC article about the tensions between Basil Zempilas and current Liberal leader Libby Mettam. It was a big story late last year involving leaked polling, a party room vote, and a resignation, so dive into that if you’d like to know more.

Watching: This YouTube series from 9News that breaks down the issues and discussion points on the election, if you’d like to get into them further.

Recent Shortcuts