1989 Western Australian state election


Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 4 February 1989 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council. The Labor government, led by Premier Peter Dowding, won a third term in office against the Liberal Party, led by Opposition Leader Barry MacKinnon.
The result was a major swing against the Labor Party, coming in the wake of revelations of dealings between Government and business that came to be known as WA Inc. The redistribution that took place in 1988, based upon the Acts Amendment Act 1987 which abolished several country and outer metropolitan electorates while creating new metropolitan ones, makes it difficult to assess how Labor would have performed on the old boundaries—while it lost four seats, it gained one Liberal-held seat and won several of the new seats, so in net terms, it only lost one seat despite the massive swing and the low two-party-preferred result.
This was the first election in WA contested by the Australian Greens Party.

Results

Legislative Assembly

Legislative Council

Seats changing parties

LABOR SEATS ---
Marginal---
GeraldtonJeff CarrALP0.2%
Northern RiversKevin LeahyALP0.6%
MurrayKeith ReadALP0.9%
DianellaKeith WilsonALP1.1%
PerthIan AlexanderALP1.2%
BunburyPhil SmithALP1.5%
Swan HillsGavan TroyALP1.5%
WannerooJackie WatkinsALP1.6%
WhitfordPam BeggsALP1.7%
HelenaGordon HillALP2.6%
ArmadaleBob PearceALP3.1%
NollamaraJohn KobelkeALP3.7%
BalcattaNick CataniaALP4.0%
RockinghamMike BarnettALP4.1%
GlendaloughCarmen LawrenceALP4.8%
Fairly safe---
KenwickJudyth WatsonALP6.9%
MitchellDavid SmithALP7.4%
ThornlieYvonne HendersonALP7.4%
Victoria ParkGeoff GallopALP7.4%
AshburtonPam BuchananALP7.9%
PeelNorm MarlboroughALP9.4%
Safe---
MaylandsPeter DowdingALP10.1%
BelmontEric RipperALP10.5%
EyreJulian GrillALP11.2%
KalgoorlieIan TaylorALP11.4%
PilbaraLarry GrahamALP11.5%
FremantleDavid ParkerALP12.4%
MarangarooTed CunninghamALP12.4%
MorleyFrank DonovanALP12.4%
CockburnBill ThomasALP14.6%
KimberleyErnie BridgeALP19.6%