Western Australia January to June 2025

Western Australian (WA) politics in the first half of 2025 was dominated by the state election on 8 March and the federal election on 3 May. The lead-up to the state election was largely an exercise in expectation management, with virtually all commentators—and, one suspects, participants—predicting victory for the Cook Labor government. Given the enormity of the McGowan landslide in 2021, when Labor won 53 out of 59 seats, it was universally expected that Labor would lose seats; the only question was – how many? A commonly held benchmark for the Liberal and National Parties was to at least match their (poor) 2017 performance, when they won 18 seats between them, in order to set themselves up to be more competitive in 2029. Instead, they won only 13 seats, and Labor looks set to govern for the foreseeable future. WA Labor's strong showing was replicated at the federal election 2 months later, when it secured two more seats to hold 11 of the state's 16 federal electorates on a two-party preferred share of 55.8%—a huge turnaround from just 6 years ago. The WA state election campaign saw the Labor government and Liberal and National oppositions parties rely on different strategies to win the trust of voters. Labor presented itself as a safe pair of hands, focusing on Premier Roger Cook as an experienced leader. They sought to contrast this with the Liberals, who were forced to rely heavily on candidates who had never been in parliament. In policy terms, both parties promised significant spending commitments—Treasury estimated Labor's promises would increase state debt by $3.34 billion by June 2028 (Government of Western Australia, 5 March). The Liberal Party chose not to submit its promises to Treasury, but its own costings calculated its promises would cost $110 million more than Labor over the same period (Hastie and Burton, WA Today, 6 March). Labor maintained a strong focus on addressing cost of living concerns. Given their strong budget position, they were well positioned to offer relief on a range of fronts. There was a $337 million commitment to support the installation of home batteries, a capped fare of $2.80 per trip for all Transperth and Transregional services, and a WA Student Assistance Payment. There was a WA Rent Relief Program to support vulnerable households. Labor also made much of their “made in WA’” ambitions, promoting local manufacturing as a way of boosting job creation (rogercook.com.au, 23 February). Despite starting well behind the Labor Party in opinion polls, there appeared to be little appetite in the Liberal Party for bold promises. On several issues, they matched promises made by Labor. The Liberals campaigned heavily on health, in part because it was widely seen as an Achilles' heel for the government, but also because Liberal leader Libby Mettam was shadow health minister and was confident in speaking on it. They offered an array of specific election commitments in housing, including infrastructure and additional stamp duty relief. On the environment, they differed from Labor by proposing to keep coal-fired power stations online for longer and to lift the ban on uranium mining. They also proposed to defund the Environmental Defenders Office (waliberal.org.au, 26 February). The National Party, which was the official opposition, concentrated its attention on regional areas. Seeing opportunities to pick up Labor seats in larger regional centres, they made promises to those communities. They also called for an overhaul of Royalties for Regions, a policy they had campaigned successfully on in 2008 and 2013. Other policies included funding for homes for government workers in regional areas and a doubling of investment in the Community Sporting and Recreation Facilities Fund (Mayes, ABCNews online, 2 March). The election resulted in a resounding re-endorsement of the Labor government (for detailed analysis of the results, see Antony Green's Election Blog, 25 September). While unable to replicate its 2021 COVID-era result under McGowan, Labor still won 46 of the 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Just 8 of the 59 assembly seats changed hands, with 5 won by the Liberals from Labor and 3 won by the Nationals off Labor. Labor's primary vote fell by 18.5 percentage points to 41.4%; however, it still won 57.2% of the two-party preferred vote, as the Liberal primary vote only increased by 6.8 percentage points to 28.0%. The Greens vote rose by 4 points to 11.1%, while the Nationals increased from 4% to 5.15%. For the Liberal Party, the result fell far short of what they were hoping for, winning only seven seats (five more than the 2021 disaster). However, they did squeak past the Nationals (six seats) to again become the official Opposition. There were other positives for the Liberals. Prominent TV personality and Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas was elected (narrowly) to the seat of Churchlands and was promptly installed as Opposition Leader. Jonathan Huston was elected in Nedlands, returning the seat previously held by the Court family to Liberal hands. Former Young Liberal President Liam Staltari won the seat of Carine at the age of just 29. Adam Hort was elected in Kalamunda after running an energetic and effective campaign. The National Party was able to double their representation from three to six MPs. In doing so, they prevailed over the Liberals in some three-cornered contests with Labor. Perhaps the most critical of these was the seat of Mid-West, which was an amalgam of two seats, pitting current MPs Shane Love (the Nationals leader and official leader of the Opposition in the previous parliament) and Merome Beard (Liberal—former National). Love won comfortably, 63.7% to 36.3%. Other significant contests saw the Nationals win Warren-Blackwood back (which they lost to Labor in 2021), Albany (held by Labor since 2001), and Geraldton for the first time at a general election. The Greens improved their vote from 7% to 11.1%. Whilst they did not win a lower house seat, they did win four seats in the Legislative Council, meaning they could combine with Labor to pass legislation in that house (see below). As in other jurisdictions, several independent candidates performed well. Perhaps the most spectacular performance was that of Kate Hulett in Fremantle, who polled 25.5% of the primary vote and fell just 424 votes short of toppling Labor Minister Simone McGurk. In neighbouring Cottesloe, Rachel Horncastle polled 27% of the primary vote and finished second to incoming Liberal candidate Sandra Brewer. The year 2025 was the first election for the Legislative Council following the 2022 reforms to its voting system. The Legislative Council is now one electorate with a similar state-wide proportional representation system to NSW and South Australia. Despite fears that the low quota to be elected would see a profusion of candidates and parties, the ballot paper was quite manageable with only 13 columns, similar to (and in some regions fewer than) previous elections. Labor won 16 seats, the Liberals 10, and the Greens 4, with 2 each to the Nationals and One Nation. Legalise Cannabis, Australian Christians, and Animal Justice won one seat each. Thirty-four of the 37 candidates were elected on first preferences, with the 16th Labor member, the 2nd One Nation member, and the sole Animal Justice member elected on preferences. With 19 votes required to pass legislation, Labor no longer had the votes to do so in their own right, but had multiple options they could count on. With a number of ministers retiring at the election, three new faces were promoted from Labor's caucus into Cabinet, with others becoming parliamentary secretaries. The new ministers are Meredith Hammat, MP for Girrawheen and former head of Unions WA, MP for Kingsley Jessica Stojkovski, and Upper House MP Matthew Swinbourn. The biggest surprise in portfolio allocations saw the Health portfolio going to Ms. Hammat, although it was effectively split with John Carey taking on health infrastructure and Sabine Winton taking on Preventative Health. Both the other new Ministers were entrusted with significant responsibilities also, with Ms. Stojkovski taking on the challenging portfolio of Child Prevention and Mr. Swinbourn being responsible for Environment, Community Services, and Homelessness. Elsewhere there were further significant changes. Sabine Winton takes on Education, with previous Education Minister Tony Buti becoming Attorney General. Reece Whitby has Police, with Paul Papalia moving to Corrective Services. Former Health Minister Amber Jade Sanderson becomes Minister for Energy, and John Carey Minister for Planning and Works. Stephen Dawson replaces retired MLC Sue Ellery to become Labor leader in the Legislative Council as well as Minister for Regional Development, Ports, Science, and Innovation (Cook, WA Government Media Statements, 18 March). Other MPs also enjoyed a promotion. The new MP for Landsdale and former chief of staff to the Premier, Daniel Pastorelli, becomes Cabinet Secretary, while the MP for Forrestfield, Stephen Price, was elected as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly (WA Hansard, 15 April). For the Liberal and National opposition, there was much discussion around the pathway forward. The position of leader of the Liberal Party was declared vacant and Libby Mettam announced that she did not intend to recontest. Basil Zempilas was accordingly elected unopposed with Mettam elected Deputy Leader. Upon being elected as leader, Mr. Zempilas emphasized unity and teamwork and promised to be consultative (Bourke, ABC News, 25 March). Most of the 17 Liberal members of parliament (7 in the Assembly, 10 in the Council) received shadow portfolios, with notable roles going to Sandra Brewer (Treasury), Nick Goiran (Attorney General), David Bolt (Housing and the Environment), Adam Hort (Police), Steve Martin (Transport), Tjorn Sibma (Finance), Liam Staltari (Education), Steve Thomas (Energy), and Neil Thomson (Planning) (Page, The West Australian, 4 April). The Nationals, having doubled their Assembly seats, made no move to change their leader, with Midwest MP Shane Love continuing in the role, and Peter Rundle continuing as his Deputy. The nature of the relationship between the Liberals and Nationals remained an area of contention. During the previous term, the two parties had operated in an “alliance”, which committed both parties to working together but allowed each party to operate with a degree of independence. This arrangement had implications for the 2025 election, with both parties forming differing policy positions, fielding opposing candidates in many of the same seats, and nominating separate candidate tickets in the Legislative Council. The Nationals even stood candidates in inner-city seats such as Nedlands and Bateman. There was disquiet following the election, as this arrangement was seen to negatively impact the electoral performance of both parties. In June, Nationals leader Shane Love threatened to pull out of the Alliance unless the Liberals agreed to form a formal Coalition, similar to that existing at federal level. Liberal leader Mr. Zempilas did not immediately commit to this, stating that internal consultation within his party was required before coming to a position (Spagnolo, The West Australian, 22 June). The WA Electoral Commission (WAEC) came under fire after reports of a number of problems occurring in the conduct of the election. Chief amongst these were claims of long wait times and a shortage of ballot papers. There were also allegations that some electors were given incorrect advice or told to go home when ballot papers ran out (Evenson, The West Australian, 8 March). Further reports suggested that many booths were understaffed, and there was discussion around the extent of the outsourcing of the recruitment and training of staff (Bourke, ABC News, 15 March). The election results took some time to resolve, but a significant factor in this was the first-time operation of the new voting system in the Legislative Council. A perceived lack of regular communication from the Electoral Commissioner was also a sore point for some. Whilst the WAEC announced an internal investigation, there were growing calls, including an open letter signed by a cross-section of non-government parties, for an independent inquiry (Burton and Hastie, WA Today, 17 March). On 2 April, the government announced an independent Special Inquiry to be headed by former Governor Malcolm McCusker, with the Terms of Reference focusing on staffing of polling places, the outsourcing of staffing, availability of ballot papers, counting of ballots, and broader planning and management of operational matters by the WAEC. The Inquiry was due to report by the end of June (Bourke and Perpitch, ABC News, 2 April). Premier Roger Cook further put his stamp on the government with an announcement of sweeping “machinery of government” (MoG) changes (Cook, WA Government Media Statements, 31 March). Nine of the current 25 government departments are to be impacted, with a net gain of one new department. The changes take effect on 1 July for completion by the end of 2025. The Premier pitched the changes as being targeted at “driving economic resilience” and creating “centres of building excellence within the public sector”. On the economic front, a Department of Energy and Economic Diversification will be established, as well as an Office of Defence Industries within the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Regulatory functions of the Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration will move to the revamped Department of Local Government, Commerce, Industry Regulation, and Safety. The departments of Treasury and Finance are also being brought together. The need to act on housing and to accelerate and is in a new Department of and similar to what under the Labor government in the The Department of will become the Department of and including a new Office of at building as well as the changes to government were several new immediately after the election, the Premier that Daniel would become his new chief of Daniel Pastorelli, who the new MP for Landsdale at the election. Mr. previously in the of Premier and his own and public as well as being a regular The head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, announced a after the election that she was an having been by former Premier McGowan to a in In the of the several new of were announced (Cook, WA Government Media Statements, 10 June). were notable for being from WA, in of a in of the Department of Premier and of NSW be first and former public take the at the Department of and In and Commissioner John announced was to on June after a long and (WA Government Media Statements, 10 June). Mr. was first in and was the was also the state's first of and a Court Justice for 16 Mr. was at the of the his in June for a of months in when the parliamentary could not on his to the government of legislation Mr. to the (see long with the which it had three of their term, and several As per the Governor the of the new with a of the Cook for the coming (WA Hansard, 8 April). was addressing the cost of including power a WA Student Assistance capped public a new and Further Education and first A second was the creation of new in WA, in was also out as a A was building housing and an for first was of health in the including an to and of regional There was a commitment to a new and and to Perth regional areas were also out for and commitment to public including completion of the and the new The 2025 state budget was on 19 June, than due to the March election. The budget papers a billion for and a similar for the for the debt was estimated at billion by June 2025. of this was the infrastructure The biggest spending commitments to housing with a billion to housing including a Other spending commitments included million for the million for in and million to the to There was also billion for the in at boosting local manufacturing 19 June). Opposition Basil Zempilas called the budget a because it to critical problems in housing, health, and also it did not go far to cost of living because public such as and to The West Australian, 26 June). much on 8 the state government announced that it had an with the Australian Commission to a new National in Perth from The will be called the Perth of the The government committed million over with more than half of this to go and the The included a new in for the Department of Treasury suggested that the economic to the state over years would be The was expected to double in WA (Cook, WA Government Media Statements, 8 Whilst many strong there were some over the would be able to and government support ABC News, 8 The WA in a the Western for just three from to The been by The West Australian and West Media of for on the The West Australian, February). During the election Labor committed to a new Perth and at the and the with to in 2025 and the first for The had a of million and included a for new and existing as well as a and The was to the for and and and boosting the local and WA Government Media Statements, 15 The however, had its who there was a lack of consultation around the and what would be A local called Alliance was and called to the a range of from local There were also its impact since the area is a that and with the the government was by the and others of having when health and housing in were as being ABC News, 17 government was a to first at in The there was a for the including having and ABC News, There were a of of the by the WA who it a and that it well to and such as MPs and that it and public health and it was as on by Minister Peter Rundle The 5 June). On June the WA Commission the stating the did not the required The was with no ABC News, 5 June). 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