Labor’s emphatic WA win sets up Anthony Albanese to hold onto key federal seats in May election

Labor Premier Roger Cook’s iron-clad grip over all corners of Perth saw him sitting on a two party preferred vote of more than 58 per cent on Saturday night, in one of the ALP’s biggest election wins in its history nationwide.

WA Premier Roger Cook celebrates his election victory on stage at Medina Hall Complex, south of Perth.

West Australian Labor has won a state election victory that could set the party up for another two terms and Anthony Albanese has been given hope in his difficult task to hold on to key seats at the May federal poll, after Premier Roger Cook won a historic third landslide.

Mr Cook’s iron-clad grip over all corners of Perth saw him sitting on a two party preferred vote of more than 58 per cent on Saturday night and win at least 40 seats, in what was set to be one of the ALP’s biggest election wins in its history nationwide and only overshadowed by his predecessor Mark McGowan’s record-breaking landslide in 2021.

As he counted Mr McGowan among his thanks in his victory speech, Mr Cook said his government would be focused on housing, health and dealing with the cost-of-living crisis.

“West Australians have voted for a future that is made in WA,” Mr Cook told his supporters in Kwinana.

“While we celebrate tonight, we are humble. We do not take that trust for granted. We will work to repay this trust every single day.”

The WA Liberals fell flat in many of the former stronghold seats that they were expected to regain, with the part set to fail to win seats such as South Perth, Scarborough, Riverton and Bateman, all of which had been touted as all but certain to be reclaimed.

While Labor had been expected to win easily, the Liberals had been wanting to reclaim a series of heartland seats to rebuild its parliamentary presence, to give it a real shot at winning government in 2029 and build up resources for the federal campaign starting next month.

But Labor’s primary vote statewide dropped 18 per cent on Saturday’s counting from the last state election, with a particularly strong swing against it in WA’s regions where anger over a botched attempt at revamping cultural heritage laws and the Albanese government’s live sheep export ban saw support for the ALP recede.

The WA election was a significant victory for Anthony Albanese, who is set to retain key federal seats in the upcoming election.

Fremantle MP and ALP frontbencher Simone McGurk was also on track to lose to independent candidate Kate Hulett, in one of the first national instances of a Teal-inspired community independent ousting a Labor MP.

The Prime Minister had been due to announce his own federal election date of April 12 on the back of the expected landslide in WA, but he switched to his contingency plan of a March 25 federal budget and a May election in the face of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

State results on Saturday showed Labor holding up in electorates that sit in the must-win federal seats of Tangney and Pearce.

The Liberals had only secured one extra seat on Saturday night’s count, with even star candidate Basil Zempilas leading in a too-close-to-call contest in the former blue-ribbon seat of Churchlands.

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam is now vulnerable to a stalking leadership campaign from the Perth Lord Mayor should he get into parliament after all, given the disappointing result.

Ms Mettam said it would be up to her colleagues to decide if she continues in the role after she led the party to a third straight horror election result.

After giving her concession speech in Cottesloe on Saturday night, Ms Mettam said she would consider her future after speaking to her colleagues over the coming days.

“That will ultimately be a decision of the parliamentary Liberal Party, and I will respect whatever decision they make,” Ms Mettam said.

She acknowledged that the result had not gone the way she had expected.

“Quite clearly, this is not the result that we wanted,” she said.

“I feel I gave it my all, and there will be much reflection on what made the overall result and we will obviously take that into account.”

Mr Zempilas – the former sports broadcaster and radio host has the tacit support of his long-time employer at the Seven Network, billionaire Kerry Stokes – said on Saturday he was not contemplating a leadership campaign as of yet.

“I sent her (Ms Mettam) a message last night and said ‘Libby, you’ve been inspirational’ … Libby has won the campaign,” he told Sky News.

“There’s no contemplation about leadership change. The only contemplation is how do we go tonight and how do we go from there.”

The loss of Ms McGurk, considered one of the Cook government’s most effective ministers, would be a devastating blow for WA Labor.

A former journalist then head of Unions WA, Ms McGurk built a reputation in parliament for policy solutions to difficult problems.

One of her most notable achievements was as state child protection minister after Scott Morrison asked all states and the NT in 2020 to recommit to reducing the numbers of Aboriginal children in state care.

They did this by signing the recast Closing The Gap agreement.

The number of Aboriginal children removed from their parents in WA had been rising for 25 years but Ms McGurk halted then began to reverse the trend.

She did this not by changing the measure by which children were deemed safe but with early interventions on parents who were struggling or had been red flagged.

By August 2021, the work was yielding results and the number of Aboriginal children removed from their families in WA had begun to fall for the first time since 1996.