Election 2025: The west is best place to be, Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton reckon

The 2022 election result fell into place in Western Australia and, if the leaders’ travels are anything to go by, the major parties reckon it could well happen again.

David Tanner

Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese at the third leaders' debate this week. They have already made three election trips each across the Nullarbor to campaign. Picture: Alex Ellinghausen / NewsWire

2 min read

15 hours ago.

Updated 13 hours ago

Western Australia decided the 2022 election – and if the leaders’ travels in the first four weeks of the campaign are anything to go by, the major parties reckon it could well do so again.

With one week of campaigning to go, Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have already made three trips each across the Nullarbor to campaign in a state that rocked the Morrison government when voters in four Liberal-held seats collectively switched their allegiances to Labor.

The Albanese government won power three years ago with a majority of one seat.

Mr Albanese this week trumpeted his support for Western Australia by declaring he had visited every one of the state’s 15 existing electorates during his prime ministership, as well as the newly created seat of Bullwinkel.

Just during this campaign he has visited nine of the 16, while the Opposition Leader has been to eight WA electorates, including three visits each to Tangney and Swan, both lost in the 2022 defeat.

Anthony Albanese drops into Liberal-held Canning to hand out how-to-vote cards this week. Picture: Mark Stewart / NewsWire

Swan, held by Labor’s Zaneta Mascarenhas on a margin of 9.4 per cent – currently stands as the most-visited electorate with the major parties’ leaders collectively dropping in five times.

In an indication Labor’s confidence has grown as the polls have improved, Mr Albanese included a visit this week to Canning, the seat of Liberal defence spokesman Andrew Hastie, who has come under fire over comments that women should not serve in combat roles in war zones.

Mr Dutton continued his attacking posture in the fourth week of the campaign, stepping foot in a Coalition-held seat only to attend Anzac Day commemorations in his own electorate of Dickson.

Across the campaign, the Liberal leader has visited only four other Coalition-held seats – flood-hit Maranoa in outback Queensland, teal-threatened Forrest in southwest Western Australia, ultra-marginal Sturt in Adelaide and Townsville-based Herbert on Anzac Day. Before Friday, Mr Dutton had gone 17 straight days without visiting a Coalition seat.

Peter Dutton back on home turf in his seat of Dickson with wife Kirilly at an Anzac Day event. Picture: Richard Dobson/NewsWire

Mr Albanese has maintained a primarily defensive posture, with about two-thirds of his seat visits geared towards sandbagging Labor seats and one-third in Coalition, Greens or independent electorates.

NSW, with 27 separate seat visits, Victoria (26) and Western Australia (25) have enjoyed the lion’s share of the two leaders’ combined campaign efforts up to Friday.