Labor has won the Western Australian election, earning it a third straight term, with ABC election analyst Antony Green calling the result at just after 7:40pm local time.
It was Roger Cook’s first election victory as party leader after taking over the top job from the hugely popular Mark McGowan about 18 months ago.
The result means Labor has won three consecutive elections in WA, the first time a party has done so in the state since the 1980s.
While the final seat numbers in the lower house are yet to be determined, it is now clear the conservative parties will not gain enough seats to form a government.
Going into the election, the Liberals and Nationals combined held just five seats in the lower house, after being virtually wiped out in the 2021 election held during the height of the COVID pandemic.
The 2021 election was the biggest landslide in Australian political history and came after another considerable Labor win in 2017.
Liberal disappointment
While a Labor win was never in doubt, the Liberals had hoped for a much stronger showing than results so far have indicated.
Must-win Liberal seats such as South Perth, Bateman, Riverton and Scarborough, all traditional blue-ribbon seats, all look to have been retained by Labor.
The Liberals have retained leader Libby Mettam’s seat of Vasse and look almost certain to have held onto Cottesloe, in Perth’s beachside western suburbs.
Liberal leader Libby Mettam has easily won Vasse, but other must-win seats appear to have been retained by Labor. (ABC News: Jon Daly)
They’ve also won Carine, but Nedlands is looking closer than initially thought, and may still be retained by Labor.
Liberal energy spokesperson Steve Thomas conceded it had been a “tough night”.
“There’s a number of these seats that we needed to win and pick up, and pick up comfortably, and we obviously, at this point, haven’t done any of those things today,” he said.
However, star candidate Basil Zempilas has won the blue-ribbon seat of Churchlands, according to ABC election analyst Antony Green, after a nail-bitingly close contest.
The state’s most marginal seat had been held by Labor MP Christine Tonkin on a 1.6 per cent margin.
Polling day problems
The calling of the election came after the ABC received numerous calls from people who reported being unable to vote because their local polling station had run out of ballots and it was too late to go elsewhere.
Among places affected were booths in Shenton Park, Spearwood and Forrestfield.
But the WA Electoral Commission said “no-one was refused the opportunity to vote”, and said it was only aware of an issue in Cockburn, in Perth’s south.
“At this point the only report from our staff of ballot paper shortages was St Jerome’s Primary School in Cockburn where they ran out of Legislative Council ballot papers,” it said in a statement.
“This was near close of polling and voters were advised to wait for more ballot papers to arrive and they were then able to vote shortly after.”
Check out our 2025 WA state election page for all of the ABC’s coverage.
