The 2017 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 11 March 2017 to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, including all 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 36 seats in the Legislative Council. The eight-and-a-half-year two-term incumbent Liberal–WA National government, led by PremierColin Barnett, was defeated in a landslide by the Laboropposition, led by Opposition LeaderMark McGowan. Labor won 41 of the 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly—a 12-seat majority. Not only is this WA Labor's strongest performance in a state election, but it is also the largest majority government and seat tally in Western Australian parliamentary history. Additionally, Labor exceeded all published opinion polling, winning 55.5 percent of the two-party-preferred vote from a state record landslide 12.8-point two-party swing. It is the worst defeat of a sitting government in Western Australia, as well as one of the worst defeats of a sitting state or territory government since Federation. Labor also became the largest party in the Legislative Council with 14 of the 36 seats. The Labor government will require at least five additional votes from non-government members to pass legislation.
Results
Legislative Assembly
Seats changing parties
Members in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
Labor also retained two seats—Collie-Preston and West Swan—which were notionally Liberal-held after the redistribution. The Liberals retained Hillarys, which was being contested by the incumbent MLA Rob Johnson as an independent.
Post-election pendulum
Legislative Council
Date of election
On 3 November 2011, the Government of Western Australia introduced fixed four-year terms for the Legislative Assembly, with the elections to be held on the second Saturday in March. The first election under the new law was the 2013 election. Previously, under electoral reforms of the Burke Government in 1987, four-year maximum terms were adopted for the Legislative Assembly, and fixed four-year terms for the Legislative Council.
Seats held
Lower house
At the 2013 election, Labor won 21 seats, the Liberals won 31 seats and the Nationals won 7 seats. No seats were won by independents. On 15 April 2016, the Liberal member for Hillarys, Rob Johnson, resigned from the Liberals to sit as an independent, leaving the government with 30 seats in the lower house.
Upper house
At the 2013 election, the Liberals won 17 seats, Labor won 11 seats, the Nationals won five seats, the Greens won two seats and the Shooters and Fishers won one seat. Western Australia's Legislative Council is divided into six regions. Three are based in Perth, while three are rural. Each region elects six members to the Legislative Council. These areas are not of similar population sizes, with rural areas receiving from one and a half to about six times the effective membership of the metropolitan regions. The Western Australian rural population dropped from about 12.1% to 10.7% of the state's enrolled electors after the 2008 election. Election analyst Antony Green predicted this would make it more difficult for the Liberals or Labor to increase their presence within the Legislative Council.
Redistribution
A redistribution of electoral boundaries for the lower house was completed on 27 November 2015. This resulted in a net gain of one seat for the Liberals from Labor. The Liberal seats of Alfred Cove, Eyre and Ocean Reef, the Labor seat of Gosnells and the National seat of Wagin were abolished. Five new seats were created : the notionally Liberal seats of Bicton and Burns Beach, the notionally Labor seats of Baldivis and Thornlie, and the notionally National seat of Roe. The Labor seats of Collie-Preston and West Swan became notionally Liberal.
Retiring MPs
Members who have announced they will not re-nominate at the 2017 election:
The following Mackerras Pendulums work by lining up all of the seats according to the percentage point margin post-election on a two-candidate-preferred basis, grouped as marginal, safe etc. as defined by the Australian Electoral Commission. This pendulum takes the redistribution into account. One sitting member, retiring Wagin Nationals MP Terry Waldron, does not appear in this pendulum: his seat was combined with Eyre to form Roe, a seat with a National margin that will also be contested by Eyre Liberal MP Graham Jacobs, who is listed as the defending member below. Two Liberal members, Dean Nalder and Matt Taylor, were contesting each other's seats; this is reflected below. Retiring members are listed in italics.
