Roger Cook leads WA Labor to third consecutive election win

Labor has retained government in Western Australia, with Roger Cook leading his party to a historic third consecutive election win.

The ABC’s Antony Green called the election just after 7.30pm with Liberal target seats that the party had, internally, felt confident of snatching off Labor, like Scarborough, Bateman and South Perth being retained by their respective MPs.

By 9.30pm statewide first preference votes looked to be shocking for Labor – hemorrhaging nearly 18 per cent – but they were not breaking to the Liberals.

Although the Libby Mettam-led party had gained about 7.1 per cent, the Greens seemed to be picking up a healthy amount of Labor’s loss vote, with a 4.8 per cent swing.

Labor faithful at the party’s election HQ were raucous at the result but saved much of their cheers for when the results in Churchlands began pouring in, suggesting Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas was facing a tough challenge from Labor MP Christine Tonkin.

Cook drove himself and his wife from his party headquarters a short distance to the Medina Town Hall in the heart of his Kwinana electorate where a gathering of about 200 party faithful met him with deafening applause.

Premier Roger Cook and his wife Carly after the victory speech.Credit: Trevor Collens

Cook started his victory speech with a compliment to Libby Mettam, who he had spoken to a short time earlier.

“[Mettam] offered her congratulations to our WA Labor team for being elected to form a new government and wished us well,” he said.

“I congratulated Libby on the tireless work she put into this campaign on the campaign trail.

“And, look, she’s a decent person who, like most of us who go into public life, does it for the right reasons.”

He then said it was time to get to work on his Made in WA plan to boost green renewable manufacturing in the state.

“As a team, we achieve so much more together than we do alone and each member of our WA Labor team looks forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting back to work for each and every Western Australian, to create jobs, to deliver the infrastructure and services,” he said.

“We need to make a WA a renewable energy powerhouse and restore pride in the words Made in WA.”

Labor supporters celebrate.Credit: Trevor Collens

The mood was distinctly different 30 kilometres north, where Mettam – flanked by her husband – put on a brave face as she addressed party faithfuls in the affluent western suburb of Cottesloe shortly after 9.10pm.

The Liberal leader conceded the result was another emphatic win for the WA Labor Party and evidence the party rebuild embarked upon in 2021 looked set to continue.

“Is this what we have been working for? Absolutely not,” she told those gathered at the Anderson Pavillion.

“The rebuild of the WA Liberal Party continues. Can I thank each and every one of the people in Western Australia who voted for us, and for those that didn’t – we are listening.”

The MP for Vasse branded the night one of reflection, but declined to be drawn on what she believed went wrong for the campaign and whether she would remain party leader.

“That will ultimately be a decision for my parliamentary colleagues,” she said.

“I had given it my all.”

Mettam and several other senior Liberal figures left the function within 30 minutes of the speech.

Earlier in the night, Police Minister Paul Papalia suggested the victory was a result of governing for the middle.

“People appreciate a good strong government and government in the middle,” he said.

“Ever since we were elected in 2017 we attempt to govern for the majority of West Australians in the middle.”

The result maintains Labor’s strong grip over the state and gives Cook a mandate to pursue his nearly $6 billion in promises, including controversial projects like the $217.5 million Burswood street circuit and $107 million electric ferry network on the Swan River.

The Liberals have so far picked up Nedlands, Carine and Kalamunda with Albany still on a knife’s edge. Churchlands looks likely to be won by Zempilas as well.

The result also brings the Liberals back from the political wilderness, where the party has been wandering for the past four years after losing 11 seats in 2021’s election bloodbath.

With a strengthened presence in the lower house the conservative party will be able to mount a proper attack on Labor at the 2029 election.

How did we get here?

The 2021 result was so catastrophic for the WA Liberals and this one isn’t much better.

Labor secured 53 of 59 seats at that election, which was widely considered to have been a result of voter support for then-premier Mark McGowan’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The result decimated the Liberal party and made it impossible to mount an effective fightback with a depleted volunteer base and weakness in parliament.

Their prospects increased slightly with the shock retirement of McGowan in May 2023, and the subsequent ascension of Cook to the leadership gave the Liberals a sniff of hope in that they wouldn’t have to face the most popular premier in history again.

Come campaign time, the Liberals had honed their message to focus on four key areas – cost of living, crime, housing and health.

Labor went broader with its pitch to voters, which at some points was used against them.

The street race circuit and ferry expansion idea, coupled with leaks from the NRL about the WA government’s willingness to pay hundreds of millions to bring a team to WA, gave the Liberals plenty of ammunition to attack the government over its priorities.

Mettam’s campaign also suffered with candidate controversies like Darran Spackman, who resigned from the party after a car crash media interview where he was being grilled about a Facebook post he made in 2023.

She was also grilled consistently over the safety of her leadership and Zempilas after she defeated a challenge driven by polling facilitated by Zempilas’ campaign manager in November last year.

The federal Liberals will be keenly dissecting the WA result – confirming to them that the curse of McGowan may not have lifted from the state less than two months from their own election.

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