‘Pride and love’: Cook offers tearful thanks to wife and family as work begins on Labor’s third term

Premier Roger Cook became tearful as he closed a press conference in Wellard when sharing details about a moment of “pride and love” with his family on Saturday night before he declared victory in Labor’s second-best election result in the state’s history.

“It was pride and love and I had the opportunity at home to give [my family] a hug,” Cook said on Sunday morning before cutting the conference short and embracing his wife Carly Lane who was watching on nearby.

WA Premier Roger Cook after election day.Credit: Hamish Hastie

On the current vote count Labor has secured at least 40 seats with tight contests in Pilbara and Kalgoorlie likely to fall their way while the Liberals seem likely to pick up just 7 seats – compared to the 11 that polling put them at before the election.

Cook said he was “humbled” by the victory and that the result gave him a clear mandate to pursue Labor’s agenda.

“I think this is an emphatic victory for a WA Labor and it’s a vindication of the strong government that we have provided for the people of Western Australia,” he said.

Statewide Labor’s primary vote took a huge 18 per cent swing but those votes did not directly translate to Liberal votes – instead they went to the Greens, Nationals and minor parties like One Nation and Legalise Cannabis.

In outer suburban areas Labor’s vote was hit even harder with seats like Joonadalup, Landsdale, Butler and Rockingham all recording swings of above 18 per cent.

But these were the seats that had the biggest buffer so Labor comfortably retained them.

Regionally, Labor performed poorly. They will likely lose Albany, Murray-Wellington, while Collie-Preston lost more than 20 per cent support for Labor despite the money being spent by Labor in that seat to transition from coal.

Cook refused to be drawn on what these results meant for the party.

Fremantle is also a curveball that could complicate his plans for cabinet.

The impact of teal-styled independent Kate Hulett has dropped a bomb on Labor’s Water Minister Simone McGurk who recorded a 22.2 per cent swing away from her.

Liberal leader Libby Mettam at her function on election night.Credit: Colin Murty

Hullet has so far recorded an extraordinary 28.8 per cent of the primary vote drawing mostly from Labor and Greens voters which has placed her just ahead of McGurk in the count so far. It is expected that could take several days to finalise.

She ran on more aggressive action on climate change, better access to housing and banning fracking and it resonated.

“This is an enormously exciting, brilliant day for Fremantle,” she told reporters on Sunday morning.

“We have shown WA Labor what we care about, what the community cares about, and it’s been pretty incredible after two months of community campaigning and community talking and demanding, what we can do.”

Liberal leader Libby Mettam also addressed media on Sunday and suggested that the party leadership would be up for debate in the party but that she hoped whoever it was remained leader until 2029.

“It is important that the leader has the support of the Liberal Party team and it is important that whoever the leader is going forward is the leader going into the 2029 election,” she said.

“It is important that my colleagues make that decision.”

Newly elected Churchlands Liberal Basil Zempilas, who has been touted as a potential replacement for Mettam, said now was not the time to make any hasty decisions.

“Today’s not the day for any decisions about anybody’s future,” he said.

“We need to properly understand what this result is before those contemplations.”

In the upper house the Greens are on track to secure the balance of power with a total of four seats as counting passed the halfway mark.

Legalise Cannabis, Australian Christians and One Nation are all likely to pick up seats as well.

“This is an historic election result for the Greens; we’ve kept the Liberals out for a record third term but also sent a strong message to Labor that they have to act on the housing, cost of living and climate crises,” Greens leader Brad Pettitt said.

“WA Labor have squandered their opportunity to implement lasting change over the last four years with a majority in both houses of Parliament as we’ve seen rents go through the roof, housing waitlists grow, and more West Australians than ever before struggling to make ends meet.”