WA election: Mark McGowan says Labor’s landslide victory is humbling
Labor emphatically returned to power in Western Australia; Outgoing Liberal leader Zak Kirkup loses seat, quits politics.
The Liberal Party has been all but wiped out in Western Australia in one of the most extraordinary election results in Australian history.
The outcome was called just 34 minutes after polls closed — most Labor supporters were still yet to arrive at Mark McGowan’s post-election event when the result was announced — and the Liberals are on track to hold just two seats,
The Armageddon result means the Nationals — who look set to hold five seats — will replace the Liberals as the official party of opposition. (While the Liberals and Nationals are not in coaltion, their total of six seats are combined in our count results)
The Liberals’ previous worst result was the 13 seats it won at the 2017 election.
Mr McGowan’s Labor Party is set to hold 52 of the WA parliament’s 59 seats, including a host of blue-ribbon seats — such as Nedlands, South Perth and Churchlands — that have never been held by Labor before.
Liberal leader Zak Kirkup is among those Liberal MPs to lose their seats. The seats held by his two predecessors as Liberal leader, Liza Harvey’s Scarborough and Mike Nahan’s Riverton, have also fallen.
“This is a very difficult loss. It is one that I take full responsibility for,” Mr Kirkup said in his concession speech.
The scale of the election win means Labor looks certain to control both Houses of Parliament in its own right.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said the “extraordinary” victory boded well for federal Labor’s election prospects.
Mr Albanese told Sky News that the result was “primarily about WA”, but that it “has to be good news for federal Labor as well”.
“Many people have voted Labor for the first time, (which) shows they are open to voting Labor, and I take great encouragement from it,” he said.
“The fact that you have a branch of the Liberal party wiped off the map shows they are going to struggle to run an effective campaign (in WA),” he said, adding that the state Liberal campaign had been “disastrous”.
Mr Kirkup had previously said he would step away from politics if he was defeated tonight.
He called for unity and support to help the party recover.
“We are now at a crossroads where we must rebuild. There are people tonight who will see this loss for the Liberal Party and we must use this as an opportunity to make sure that in the years to come we are a party that has strength and quality members and a party which appeals to all Western Australians,” he said.
“The next four years will be the most difficult for the Liberal Party that we have ever experienced. But we must not shy away from the task ahead of us because the people of Western Australia depend on it.”
The obliteration of the Liberals has already prompted intense scrutiny of the party and its structure.
The clean energy policy announced during the campaign by Mr Kirkup and one of the Liberals’ two surviving MPs, David Honey, had attracted strong criticism from within the Liberal Party.
There had also long been concerns within the party over its preselection processes, amid fears that they had been taken over by evangelical factions, while Mr Kirkup’s decision to concede the election more than two weeks ago had also caused divisions.
Mr Nahan described the result as a “disaster” and “gobsmacking”, and said it would be wrong to think the result was only a product of the COVID pandemic.
“It is more than Mark McGowan’s popularity and COVID-19. Look at the Queensland, Northern Territory elections. The opposition could not win those, Labor won both, but not by this margin,” he said.
Mr McGowan entered his post-election party to ACDC’s Thunderstruck flanked by his wife, children and parents.
In his victory address, he described the landslide victory as a humbling experience.
“The magnitude of what happened today is not lost on me. With it comes great responsibility,” he said.
“We will continue to deliver stable, competent, responsible and caring government for all West Australians.”
He said he would be forever grateful to the people of WA.
“To have the support and faith of so many West Australians in one of the most important state elections is a great honour,” he said.
“Can I thank those people who voted Labor for the first time in their lives across Western Australia. Can I also acknowledge West Australians who didn’t vote for us. I promise to work for everyone across Western Australia over these coming four years.”
Nationals leader Mia Davies said she was ready to step up as the opposition leader if necessary.
“If it turns out that’s how the number falls, I’ve said we’re ready for the challenge,” she told the ABC.
“We’ve been around for over 100 years, we have never shied way from a challenge, we’ll deal with that bridge and cross it when we come to it.”
Labor already held 40 out of 59 lower house seats before Saturday’s election after a landslide victory in 2017. Before the pandemic, the Liberals had high hopes it could claw some seats back and perhaps even snatch an upset victory.
However, after the Ruby Princess disaster, the WA Premier won widespread approval over his handling of overseas cruise ships that reached WA waters: he ensured the ill were treated but refused to allow passengers to disembark.
Mr McGowan’s tough border regime was also a vote winner.
The state enjoyed relative freedom and a booming iron ore economy in 2020 while other Australians were in lockdown.
The Liberals’ former WA treasurer Mr Nahan on Saturday night said it was a serious error in mid-2020 for then leader Liza Harvey to call for WA’s borders to come down. Labor campaigned hard on this with video clips of Ms Harvey and her successor Mr Kirkup criticising the McGowan government’s response to the pandemic.
READ ON to see how WA’s election night unfolded
Paul Garvey 12.22am: McGowan: Landslide victory a humbling experience
Mark McGowan entered his post-election party to ACDC’s Thunderstruck flanked by his wife, children and parents.
In his victory address, he described the landslide victory as a humbling experience.
“The magnitude of what happened today is not lost on me. With it comes great responsibility,” he said.
“We will continue to deliver stable, competent, responsible and caring government for all West Australians.”
He said he would be forever grateful to the people of WA.
“To have the support and faith of so many West Australians in one of the most important state elections is a great honour,” he said.
“Can I thank those people who voted Labor for the first time in their lives across Western Australia. Can I also acknowledge West Australians who didn’t vote for us. I promise to work for everyone across Western Australia over these coming four years.”
Paul Garvey 11.47pm: ‘This is a difficult loss’: Kirkup quits
Vanquished opposition leader Zak Kirkup has called for supporters not to abandon the party as it reels from its unprecedented wipe-out in the WA election.
“This is a very difficult loss. It is one that I take full responsibility for,” Mr Kirkup said in his concession speech.
Mr Kirkup had previously said he would step away from politics if he was defeated tonight.
He called for unity and support to help the party recover.
“We are now at a crossroads where we must rebuild. There are people tonight who will see this loss for the Liberal Party and we must use this as an opportunity to make sure that in the years to come we are a party that has strength and quality members and a party which appeals to all Western Australians,” he said.
“The next four years will be the most difficult for the Liberal Party that we have ever experienced. But we must not shy away from the task ahead of us because the people of Western Australia depend on it.”
Paige Taylor11.10pm:Kirkup calls McGowan to concede defeat
West Australian Liberal leader Zak Kirkup has just telephoned Labor premier Mark McGowan and conceded defeat. Mr Kirkup is now on his way to address party faithful and family friends at his election night event at the Dudley Park bowling Club in Dawesville, about an hour by car south of Perth.
Paige Taylor 10.45pm: Kirkup cannot win seat of Dawesville
Early counting suggests West Australian Liberal leader Zak Kirkup has suffered a swing of up to 15 per cent against him in his seat of Dawesville and cannot win.
Mr Kirkup, the youngest member of the WA parliament at 34, became leader just three months ago with the blessing of party powerbrokers spooked by internal polling showing they were headed for an unprecedented wipeout.
He won the seat of Dawesville in 2017 with a margin of 0.8 per cent.
Paul Garvey10.30pm: Labor set to take blue chip seat for first time
The blue-chip seat of South Perth looks set to fall to Labor for the first time in history.
The government has enjoyed a 17.5 per cent swing in the seat, meaning Labor candidate Geoff Baker will defeat the Liberals’ Ryan Chorley to replace the retiring John McGrath.
There is now a realistic chance that the Liberal Party emerges with only two seats.
Paul Garvey10.25pm:Dire warnings seen as surrender
For weeks, Liberal leader Zak Kirkup has been imploring voters to consider the risks of Labor gaining “total control” of WA’s parliament. Voters listened to those warnings, and emphatically voted for Labor anyway.
The result of Saturday’s election is of truly historic proportions.
READPaul Garvey’s full commentary here
Paige Taylor 10.19pm: ‘I didn’t expect it to be this quick’
A quietness has descended at the West Australian Liberal leader’s election night event south of Perth as the scale of the party’s defeat reveals itself.
Friends of the Kirkup family and Liberal party members had only begun to arrive for Mr Kirkup’s eventat the Dudley Park bowls club when the ABC and Sky called the election for Labor before 7pm local time and with just eight per cent of the vote counted. Kirkup family friends Judith Tuckey and Rosemary Apostoles had just sat down and poured their first glass of Francas savignon blanc in the clubroom decorated with blue and white balloons when they learned Labor had been called the winner.
“I didn’t expect it to be this quick,” Ms Apostoles said.
“It’s amazing.”
Paul Garvey10.12pm: Kirkup set to become first WA leader to lose seat
Opposition leader Zak Kirkup looks set to become the first WA leader to lose his seat in almost 90 years and the blue-chip seat of Nedlands could fall to Labor for the first time in history as the Liberals’ horror night continues to worsen.
Labor has also taken commanding leads in a host of others seats, including Hillarys, Bateman and Darling Range.
Mr Kirkup held his seat of Dawesville by a margin of just 0.8 per cent, but is currently tracking for a 9.1 per cent swing to Labor.
Paige Taylor 9.51pm: Rolling former Liberal leader ‘justified’
Former West Australian Liberal treasurer Mike Nahan has argued his party’s decision to roll leader Liza Harvey less than four months before the state election was justified, as the WA Liberals brace for historic defeat.
Mr Nahan told a panel of journalists and analysts on ABC TV that polling showed the party was in big trouble under Ms Harvey before she was pushed to resign in November 2020. He said that Ms Harvey, who succeeded him as leader in June 2019, erred when she opposed the McGowan government’s hard border measures during the pandemic.
“Liza, a very good friend of mine, made a serious error when she said open the borders both inter and intra state,” Mr Nahan said.
“And people revolted against that.”
Paul Garvey9.47pm: Early swing confirms win for McGowan
Mark McGowan’s resounding win in the Western Australian election has been confirmed.
ABC election analyst Antony Green formally called the election for Mr McGowan’s Labor Party at 6.43pm WA time, just 43 minutes after polls closed and counting began.
With only 1 pre cent of the vote counted, there had been a 12.2 per cent swing to Labor in the metropolitan region, and a 5.7 per cent swing in the regions.
Early counting in WA election shows a huge swing to the ALP. Libs seem to have given up already.
— Sid Maher (@sidmaher) March 13, 2021
“We can safely say the McGowan government has been returned to office,” Mr Green said.
While Mr McGowan had insisted throughout the campaign that he was not taking the result for granted, opinion polls had consistently pointed to an emphatic win for his government.
Opposition leader Zak Kirkup had conceded more than two weeks ago that his Liberal Party would not win the election, and had instead spent the final weeks of the campaign warning against the dangers of giving Labor “total control” of the WA parliament.
Mr Kirkup is fighting to avoid becoming to the first WA leader in almost 90 years to lose his seat at an election, with his electorate of Dawesville at real risk of falling to Labor.
Mr McGowan will appear before the party faithful at a post-election function in his home suburb of Rockingham later tonight.
With only 1 pre cent of the vote counted, there had been a 12.2 per cent swing to Labor in the metropolitan region, and a 5.7 per cent swing in the regions.
“We can safely say the McGowan government has been returned to office,” he said
Paul Garvey9.38pm: Polling showed Liberals losing every seat
Liberal MP David Honey has revealed that the party had polling last year that showed it was on track to lose every seat.
Dr Honey, the party’s energy spokesman, said internal polling taken at the height of the pandemic between July and October last year had shown the party had a deep unpopularity with the public.
Speaking on ABC, he warned that some excellent people in the Liberal Party could lose their seats tonight.
“Every seat we win tonight will be a bonus,” Dr Honey said.
Asked what he believed would be a good result for the party tonight, Dr Honey said “enough seats to be the major opposition party would be the bar”.
The Liberals currently hold 13 seats, but a Newspoll on the eve of the election showed the party could be reduced to as little as three seats. Such a result could potentially see the Nationals become the official party of opposition.
Dr Honey’s seat of Cottesloe is one of those three seats that look safe for the Liberals.
Rebecca Le May 9.23pm:Liberal devastation may not be as bad as thought
Expectations Labor would easily be returned to government in Western Australia remained as polling booths closed but some said the scale of the devastation wrought upon the Liberals might not be as bad as tipped.
Multiple polls tipped the Liberals would face a bloodbath and new leader Zak Kirkup, 34, shocked everyone weeks ago when he conceded his party could not win.
He also admitted he was at risk of losing his own marginal seat of Dawesville, saying if that happened, it would spell the end of his political career after just one term.
All the Liberals could do in the campaign was try to save the furniture, warning Labor sought “total control” in both houses of parliament, which they argued would be bad for democracy.
When Mr Kirkup cast his vote, he reiterated previous comments that it was always going to be a very tough election, replying “probably not” when asked if it was ever winnable for the Liberals.
Premier Mark McGowan, who repeatedly insisted he would not take anything for granted, said he was “more a beer sort of guy” when asked if he would celebrate a victory with a beer or champagne, but insisted polls were “notoriously inaccurate”.
“This is one of the most important elections, if not the most important election, in living memory,” he said.
He urged West Australians to stay the course and stick with the team that had kept the state safeduring the pandemic.
Retiring Liberal MP Mike Nahan was on the ABC’s election night panel in Perth after polling booths closed and said there was no doubt the party would lose.
The question was the extent of the rout, which he said he believed would not be as bad as predicted in published polls.
Police Minister Michelle Roberts was modest, saying Labor’s 2017 win was remarkable and it would be a good result if the government held on to the 40 seats it already had. — NCA Newswire
Paul Garvey 8.54pm:Liberal leader calls for unity as party faces wipeout
WA opposition leader Zak Kirkup has called for unity within his party in the years ahead, as it faces the prospect of an electoral wipeout.
While the polls have not yet closed, Mr Kirkup has already conceded that the party will not form government. Polling suggests the party is on track for its worst ever election result, and could be reduced to as little as three seats.
Speaking on Channel 9, Mr Kirkup said the party had to find a way to bring in the best possible candidates ahead of the 2025 election.
“We need to get as many quality candidates into the Liberal Party as early as possible,” he said.
“The best thing we can do is attract good people and make sure we continue to appeal to the wider community, to make sure we have ideas and policies that draw people in.”
Mr Kirkup’s campaign has been plagued by spotfires involving candidates who have been linked to contentious comments.
There are also at least five former candidates and members of the Christian Democratic Party who are standing for the Liberals at this election, and there are widespread concerns among Liberal MPs and members who are concerned about the growing influence of the religious right on the party’s preselection process.
Mr Kirkup said he did not believe the party was in its current predicament because of its structure, instead attributing the looming wipeout to the government’s handling of the COVID pandemic.
He said the party needed to direct its energy towards becoming competitive again by 2025.
“It is a challenge for the Liberal Party, after 6 o’clock today, regardless of the outcome, to make sure we do rebuild with an eye to the 2025 election,” he said.
“That needs to be our sole focus, a united team, and to bring as many people along in that conversation as possible.”
Seat profile
DAWESVILLE
Sitting member: Zak Kirkup (LIB)
Margin: 0.8%
Betting: Labor $1.40, Liberal $2.75
When Kirkup was promoted to opposition leader in December last year, he said he was confident the people of Dawesville had his back. His language has become more tempered in recent weeks, saying only that he was “very hopeful” that he would be returned. Dawesville has the oldest population of any WA seat, and the elderly have a particularly positive view of McGowan’s handling of the pandemic. Both parties have made major promises for an overhaul of the local Peel health campus.
Rebecca Le May8.50pm:‘Sex symbol’ premier’s video goes viral
A TikTok video of Western Australia’s rock star-popular Premier losing it giggling went viral as people cast their votes in a state election widely expected to result in another landslide win for Labor.
In the clip, Mark McGowan stands next to the owner of the Spud Shed chain, Tony Galati, who is known for his trademark bushy eyebrows and bricklayer-style attire, referring to him as a “well-known fashion icon”.
Also in the shot is Labor’s candidate for Scarborough, Stuart Aubrey, who is trying to unseat one of only three Liberal women in the lower house, former party leader Liza Harvey.
“It’s fair to say it’s a mash made in heaven,” Mr McGowan says before laughing, saying “please don’t use that”.
It’s reminiscent of the giggling fit Mr McGowan had last year after a reporter asked about a man who was fined for stopping to eat a kebab while out for a run during lockdown. — NCA Newswire
Seat Profile
SCARBOROUGH
Sitting member: Liza Harvey (LIB)
Margin: 5.7%
Betting: Labor $1.35, Liberal $3
Harvey was deputy premier under Colin Barnett’s government and was opposition leader until her resignation in December. Her leadership was mortally wounded by her position on the state’s borders during the pandemic, and Labor have been relentlessly targeting the seat for months. Pony-tailed FIFO electrician and lifesaver Stuart Aubrey is now the favourite.
Paul Garvey8.30pm:No WA travel restrictions after new Queensland virus case
Mark McGowan says there is no need for people to change their travel plans yet in light of the latest COVID case in Queensland.
WA is currently scheduled to reopen to all other states from Monday, when quarantine requirements for arrivals from Victoria will be lifted.
Asked whether people planning to travel between WA and Queensland should reconsider, following a case of community transmission that prompted the state to close all hospitals to visitors, Mr McGowan said the government hadn’t considered reintroducing travel restrictions.
“We haven’t had any advice at this point in time that there are any problems,” he said.
“We are going to monitor it over the next day, we will probably have another meeting today, and certainly tomorrow to work out what should happen but I’ve had no advice about that at this point in time.”
Mr McGowan said the state’s emergency committee meeting had met this morning to discuss the case, while he had been in contact with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
“The advice we currently have is that we will need to watch and see what is occurring in Queensland before we take further decisions,” he said.
“Obviously it is a concerning situation, but the good news is that the person in question seems to have acquired the virus very recently and it’s been picked up very quickly.”
Paul Garvey 8.20pm: English expats expected to help McGowan to win
Perth’s high proportion of English expats and the state’s success in containing the COVID pandemic are expected to help drive Labor to a record-breaking landslide.
Speaking to media as he visited a polling booth in Padbury— one of a cluster of northern Perth suburbs with particularly high UK expat population — WA premier Mark McGowan noted that WA’s success during the pandemic had resonated with those who still have family or friends in the United Kingdom.
Around one in eight West Australians were born in Britain, Mr McGowan said, and the figure is around 25 per cent in his own electorate of Rockingham.
WA has the highest proportion of UK-born people of anywhere in Australia.
“I hear from people who have family in Britain who have had some terrible experiences, they’ve had family members and friends die in Britain or South Africa, and I think they know that we took the decisions, we made the tough calls, to keep the state safe. Britain didn’t,” he said.
“They understand that you need a government that’s prepared to do difficult things at difficult times to save people’s lives and keep the state safe.”
The UK factor could prove decisive in seats such as Hillarys, where Labor’s Caitlin Collins is challenging incumbent Liberal MP Peter Kastimbanis, and Kingsley, where Scott Edwardes, the son of Liberal stalwarts Cheryl and Colin Edwardes, has run an intense campaign against Labor incumbent Jessica Stojkovski.
Both seats are forecast by betting agencies to be won by Labor.
WA has not recorded a case of community transmission of COVID-19 in almost 11 months.
Seat Profile
HILLARYS
Sitting member: Peter Katsambanis (LIB)
Margin: 0.4%
Betting: Labor $1.15, Liberal $5
School teacher Caitlin Collins is the favourite to become the first Labor member for Hillarys, which covers Perth’s northern coastal suburbs and which has been a Liberal stronghold for decades. Katsambanis is the Liberals’ police spokesman and one of the party’s more effective performers.
Paul Garvey 6.00pm: McGowan taking nothing for granted
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan has again refused to be drawn on the likely outcome in today’s election, despite all the signs — and even his Liberal opponent — pointing to an impending Labor landslide.
Mr McGowan has spent the day visiting polling booths across Perth, accompanied along the way by his parents Dennis and Mary who recently arrived in WA from their home in NSW.
Liberal leader Zak Kirkup, who conceded more than two weeks ago that he would not win the election, voted in the suburb of Falcon in Perth’s south as he faced the prospect of becoming the first WA leader in almost 90 years to lose his seat.
An election eve Newspoll showed Labor leading the Liberals 66-34 on a two-party preferred basis, an astonishing result which if replicated across all electorates could see the Liberals reduced to as little as three seats.
Despite the outcome appearing to be a foregone conclusion, Mr McGowan told reporters he was not taking anything for granted.
“Polls are notoriously inaccurate and we will just see what happens tonight,” he said.
“I just encourage everyone to get out there and support the team that they can trust, that will keep the state strong, and that will keep the state safe.”
Mr Kirkup, meanwhile, said the latest dire polling supported his longrunning warnings about the dangers of giving Labor too strong a hold over the WA parliament.
“This only serves to reinforce the argument we’ve been talking about for the last two and a half weeks - that there is a Labor landslide coming,” he said when asked about the latest polling.
He only holds his seat of Dawesville by a margin of 0.8 per cent, meaning his seat could be one of the first to fall when counting begins at 9pm AEDST.
Asked if the election was ever winnable, Mr Kirkup said “probably not”.
“The reality is, history would be going against us in any case. 1974 was the last time that a first-term government was voted out of office in Western Australia,” he said.
“But what is at risk now is that Labor is returned with such a landslide majority that there is no one left to hold them to account, there’s no strong Liberal Party there to stop them from going too far and making mistakes.”
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