Mark McGowan’s landslide election triumph has been hailed as Labor’s greatest ever victory in WA.

Labor secured dramatic swings while the Liberals’ primary vote collapsed and several ministers were bundled out of parliament. You can relive the blow-by-blow account of the night on our Live Blog.

Colin Barnett, who was deposed after more than eight years in the top job, said his government’s long tenure was the biggest factor in the huge defeat, which underscored the “brutal, harsh business of politics”.

Play Video Colin Barnett concedes defeat. The West Australian Video Colin Barnett concedes defeat.

Labor enjoyed a night of unbridled jubilation at the sheer magnitude of its victory.

To the strains of AC/DC’s TNT, McGowan, set to be sworn in as the State’s 30th premier, was given the rock star treatment when he entered the Gary Holland Community Centre in Rockingham at about 9.20pm.

Flanked by his wife Sarah and three children, an ebullient Mr McGowan thanked WA voters, who he said had voted for “hope and opportunity” and spoke of his love for the State.

Camera Icon State Election - Labor leader Mark McGowan function at Gary Holland Centre, Rockingham. Picture: Daniel Wilkins\The Sunday Times

“Can I say this: Western Australia is truly a wonderful State.

“I love this place ... It has done more for me than I can ever repay ... I came here 27 years ago in my Corolla across the Nullarbor and today the people of WA made me Premier. Thank you.”

It had been Sarah who had encouraged Mr McGowan to keep going after he was well beaten in the 2013 election.

“She told me after 2013 ‘You can win’,” Mr McGowan reflected.

They kissed in front of the crowd, as he told Sarah he loved her.

Camera Icon State Election - Labor leader Mark McGowan function at Gary Holland Centre, Rockingham. Picture: Daniel Wilkins\The Sunday Times

For the people of WA, he said: “I won’t let you down. We will govern for everyone.”

And in a clear dig at One Nation he said: “Today, West Australians voted for hope and opportunity over desperation and division.

“Today, we showed we are a State of decency and intelligence. Not a State of stupidity and ignorance.”

He acknowledged “with success comes responsibility” and he promised to deliver good government and follow through on promises to create jobs, build Metronet and not privatise Western Power.

Mr McGowan thanked a long list of people who had helped him, including his support team and his staff.

“Can I particularly thank the people who came from over east to help and I want to mention a few ... can I thank Bob Hawke.

“I achieved one of my life time ambitions in this campaign, I had a beer with Bob Hawke.

“Can I thank Bill Shorten, who came over three times during the course of the campaign, and can I thank former premier Geoff Gallop who came from Sydney to help as well.

“And can I also acknowledge someone who didn’t come from far away, but my friend and mentor Kim Beazley, a great West Australian.

“Without Kim, I wouldn’t be standing here tonight.”

Play Video Carey claims the Liberal's deal with One Nation helped in his favour. The West Australian Video Carey claims the Liberal's deal with One Nation helped in his favour.

Mr McGowan and Labor will hold a commanding majority in the Legislative Assembly with The West Australian predicting Labor will hold at least 35 seats, with another four, including Joondalup, Kalamunda, Kingsley and Murray Wellington, still too close to call.

The Labor Party swept up seats across the metropolitan area, and have dramatically changed the state’s electoral pendulum.

Victories for Labor candidates in Balcatta, Belmont, Bicton, Burns Beach, Darling Range, Forrestfield, Morley, Mount Lawley, Perth, Southern River, Swan Hills and Wanneroo came after double digit swings against sitting Liberal MPs.

In Bunbury, Labor candidate and former South West Development Commissioner chief executive Don Punch beat Liberal candidate Ian Morison with a swing of 23.3 per cent.

The Liberals are currently winning just 11 seats, after several ministers were defeated as part of the mammoth swing against the Barnett Government. The Nationals are expected to hold at least five seats.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation had a disappointing night, recording just 4.6 per cent of the primary vote.

The Greens recorded a small increase on their 2013 result with 8.6 per cent of the vote. The National Party was slightly down, but held key seats.</s>Mark McGowan has declared victory in Western Australia as record-breaking swings put the Labor party on track to double its representatives in state parliament.

Swings of up to 20% were recorded in outer-suburban seats in Perth, while swings of more than 11% were recorded in 14 previously Liberal-held seats – securing a Labor 34 seats in the 59-seat parliament.

The number of seats declared for Labor was expected to increase to 41 as counting continued, more than double the number the party previously held.

It took just over an hour for pundits to declare the election, with the outgoing premier, Colin Barnett, conceding defeat by 8.30pm local time, just two and a half hours after the polls closed.

The federal Liberal party frontbencher Michael Keenan, speaking on ABC24, labelled it a “savage result”.

The Liberal party’s primary vote dropped 16.1% across the state. The Barnett government ministers Albert Jacob, John Day and Andrea Mitchell lost their seats, despite sitting on healthy margins, along with a host of other senior Liberal figures including the Speaker, Michael Sutherland.

Addressing an elated crowd at the Rockingham community centre at 9pm, McGowan, flanked by his wife, Sarah, and their three children, said WA had voted for “hope and opportunity over desperation and division”.



“Today we showed we are a state of decency and intelligence, not a state of stupidity and ignorance,” he said.

McGowan said Labor had “shown the way for the rest of the country”.

“The core Australian values of equality, fairness, merit and opportunity shone through in this election campaign,” he said. “They are West Australian values, and they are Labor’s values.”

Labor campaigned on a platform of opposing the controversial Perth Freight Link and the proposed sale of 51% of Western Power, and promised to reduce the state’s mounting debt – which is tipped to reach $41bn by 2020 – by diversifying the state’s economy and curbing spending.

It has also promised to build a $2.5bn urban rail project, dubbed Metronet, and to invest in social policies.

McGowan was elected to parliament in 1996 and became opposition leader in 2012. He moved to Western Australian in 1988 as a legal officer in the Australian navy, stationed in Rockingham.

“I love this place,” he said. “It’s done more for me than I can ever repay. I came here 27 years ago in my Corolla across the Nullarbor, and today the people of Western Australia have made me premier. Thank you.”

He also acknowledged Barnett’s contribution to the state and thanked him for “his many years of public service”.

A clearly emotional Barnett told Liberal party faithful in a concession speech at Cottesloe that they had run “a great campaign” but had faced a difficult task in convincing the public to give them a third term.



“To me, the overwhelming factor was time,” he said. “And it is a phenomena I guess, particularly in Australian politics, that the electorate, the voters, only give a government, a people, a certain amount of time.”

The Barnett government, which was in a loose coalition with the National party of WA, had governed for eight and a half years, during a turbulent period in which Australia had five prime ministers.

“When we won the election in 2008 and I became the state’s 29th premier, I made some commitments,” Barnett said. “Some to myself and some I made publicly. The one I made to myself was that I would give it my best shot. Maybe that wasn’t good enough but, I assure you, I have given it my best shot in every sense.”

Earlier on Saturday Barnett refused to comment on whether a preference deal with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party had turned voters away from the Liberal party.

Hanson, whose party appeared on track on Saturday night to pick up one upper house seat, said it was clear that voters were sick of Barnett. She suggested Barnett’s unpopularity had hurt One Nation’s vote, which was tracking at 4.5% – about half the level of support predicted in the polls.

The National party of WA, which was predicted to take a double hit from both One Nation and industry backlash from its proposed mining tax, gained ground in some regional seats while others swung towards Labor. The party leader, Brendon Grylls, said on Saturday night that his seat was too close to call.</s>One of the architects of the Liberal party’s preference deal with One Nation in Western Australia, the federal finance minister, Mathias Cormann, has defended the controversial arrangement, and he has refused to rule out a future preference deal at the federal level.

Cormann told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday the preference deal, which put One Nation ahead of the National party in some areas, was negotiated in an attempt to put a floor under the Liberal party’s declining primary vote, which he said was as low as 29% in internal party polling.

The strategy failed to deliver the desired result and Labor has swept to power in WA courtesy of the weekend election, with Mark McGowan’s new government currently tipped to pick up 40 seats in the state parliament.



The latest count in WA puts the negative swing against the Liberal party at 15.7% and the positive swing to Labor at 9.7%. One Nation, which had been polling in the double digits according to published surveys, polled under 5% in the final state wide count.

Cormann on Sunday defended the controversial preference arrangement with One Nation, arguing it would make a positive difference for the Liberals in a couple of seats and was justified on the evidence before the party’s state executive at the time they made the decision.

Anticipating backbiting and bloodletting in his home state, Cormann noted the state executive had approved the deal “unanimously”.

“If we wanted to minimise losses, maximise our chances of holding on to seats, we needed to be able to source preferences and, clearly, these weren’t going to come from Labor and the Greens,” the finance minister told the ABC on Sunday morning.

He refused to rule out further cooperation at the national level, saying “these are judgements that will be made at the right time”.

Cormann said the Liberal party would assess the factors behind the weekend rout in WA.

“I am personally very comfortable that Labor and the Greens obviously should always be towards the bottom of our ballot paper,” Cormann said.

But the deputy prime minister and Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, was unequivocal in his negative assessment of the preference deal, which he categorised on Sunday as “a mistake.”

He said the preference deal had two problems: the Liberals had overestimated One Nation’s electoral support and had “confused their constituency”.

“It’s in the Liberal party’s interest to be close to the National party and it’s in the National party’s interest to be close to the Liberal party, and it’s in both our interests not to confuse anybody else,” Joyce told ABC radio.

“I think the Liberal party should preference the Liberal party and the Nationals should preference the Liberal party.

“They are separate parties, they talk to different constituencies, but people see them as a team and we should stick to that idea.

“It hasn’t been a good day in the office and there are a lot of questions that need to be asked.”

“You rate your preferences in the order of people you would like to run the country.”

Joyce noted the One Nation campaign had been “a bit of a shocker” but the Nationals had done well in farming regions and would likely hold their at-risk seats in the mining regions.

The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, was also walking away from the preference arrangement on Saturday night.

“Doing the deal with the Libs has done damage to us, in all honesty. It was a mistake,” Hanson said. “We are really going to have to have a good look at this because all I heard all day leading up to this election was ‘why are you sending your preferences to the Liberal party?’”

Hanson suggested the problem stemmed from doing a deal with a major party leader past his use by date. “It wasn’t One Nation. I think it was Colin Barnett – people did not want Colin Barnett.

“It’s like when you’ve got milk in your fridge and it’s starting to go sour, you throw it out, and that’s what they should have done.”

Cormann was asked about criticism from the National veteran Ron Boswell last week that the Liberal party was being too accommodating to Hanson since her return to the federal scene last year.

He rejected the Boswell critique, saying the government had no choice other than to develop a positive relationship.

“In the Senate, if we want to get important legislation through for our country, in our national interests, we have to deal with the people that have been elected by the Australian people into the Senate,” Cormann said Sunday.

“We have to work with One Nation senators as we have to work with Nick Xenophon Team senators, as we have to work with the Liberal Democrats and Cory Bernardi and others represented in the Senate.

“That is our duty and responsibility to do that.”

Cormann also played down local controversy about WA’s share of the GST as a factor in the result.

“This was a big issue in the lead-up to the last federal election and we won 11 out of 16 seats, and 54.7% of the two-party preferred vote,” the finance minister said.

“This is an issue in WA, no doubt about it. By the same token, we have to be realistic on what a national government can do in relation to these sorts of issues and the timetable is determined by what happens with the GST sharing arrangements moving forward.

“There is a flow-through effect, principally from the prices for iron ore and the royalty revenue that is generated on the back of iron ore exports.

“That will play out over the next few years and there is an expectation in the not too distant future, WA’s share of the GST will start increasing again and, if and when that happens, there are certain options available where the floor can be established without actually taking money away from any other state.

“That is the way it should happen.”

Federal Labor argued there were substantial federal implications from the result, with frontbenchers arguing the recent Fair Work Commission decision on penalty rates had hurt the Liberals and One Nation – both supporters of the proposed cut.

Bill Shorten took to Twitter to deliver his verdict and to criticise Cormann for failing to rule out future preference deals with One Nation.</s>Labor's Mark McGowan is on track to be the state's new premier, according to results from Newspoll and ReachTEL.

Labor needs a swing of 10 per cent to win the extra 10 seats required to end Colin Barnett's eight-year reign as WA Premier.

A ReachTEL poll of 2500 voters has Labor's primary vote at 40.3 per cent, compared to the Liberal-National primary vote at 32.7 per cent.

It gives Labor a commanding 54 per cent to 46 per cent lead on a two party preferred basis, winning an additional 14 seats after an 11 per cent swing.

Newspoll also has Labor ahead of the Liberal-Nationals by the same margin on a two-party basis.

Mr Barnett, 66, on Friday launched a last-gasp pitch for votes, saying his government has much more to give.

'There's a lot more to be done; exciting times to be had - don't lose your nerve now,' he said.

'With Mark McGowan as premier Perth will become dull.'

Mr McGowan told reporters on election eve winning the extra 10 seats would be akin to 'climbing Mt Everest'.

He remains the state's preferred premier over Mr Barnett by a margin of 45 per cent to 37 per cent, according to Newspoll.

Support for Pauline Hanson's One Nation looks to have plummeted in the wake of five senators either being dumped or quitting, and a controversial preference-swap deal with the Liberals.

One Nation's primary vote has dropped from 13 per cent to 8 per cent in just six weeks.

Across the state, almost 1.6 million people have enrolled to vote for more than 700 candidates from 16 parties.

More than 180,000 early votes and 167,500 postal vote applications had been received by Friday morning.</s>Labor’s Mark McGowan makes his celebration speech to a jubilant crowd in Rockingham on Saturday after winning a stunning victory in the Western Australia election. Labor has picked up at least 14 new seats in the lower house, securing a win which McGowan says marks the victory of “hope and opportunity over desperation and division”
• Western Australian election: ABC says Labor on track to win with 33 seats – live</s>Good evening! In just over an hour, we will start to see the first results filter in from the Western Australian state election.

The latest Newspoll, published this morning, has Labor leading 54 to 46 in two-party-preferred terms, which would see the Liberal and National parties lose their grip on government after nine years in office and put Labor’s Mark McGowan, who this morning had to be prompted by a media aid to remember if he had any hobbies, in the top job.

McGowan, who has been opposition leader since 2012, the member for Rockingham since 1996, was minister for the South West in the Gallop government, and once won an award for bravery for pulling a man out of a burning car, has been ahead in the polls almost since the 2012 election.

He will need to secure at least a 10% swing toward Labor to get the 10 seats needed to secure a majority in the lower house. Exit polls are reportedly showing a 12% swing.

The message of the final days of the campaign has been that voters are tired of the premier, Colin Barnett, who is now Australia’s longest-serving leader, and also that voters are punishing the Liberal party for a preference deal with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.



The seats to keep an eye on as the results filter through tonight are the inner-city seats of Perth, Mt Lawley and Bicton, held by the Liberal party on margins of 2.6%, 8.9% and 10% respectively, and the outer suburban seats of Southern River and Wanneroo, all of which could go to Labor.

Bunbury, in the state’s south-west, is likely to go because John Castrilli (a lovely man and the first politician I ever interviewed as a cadet journo, incidentally) is retiring, and senior Barnett government figures Joe Francis and Mike Nahan are also in trouble in their electorates of Riverton and Jandakot, which both won easily on inflated margins in the 2012 election.

Finally, keep an eye up north at Pilbara, the seat held by the Nationals WA leader, Brendon Grylls. Grylls has a strong personal vote, but it is a traditionally Labor-held seat and a statewide swing, combined with a targeted campaign by the mining industry against his proposed mining tax, could see it gone too.

Grab some snacks, we could be here for a while.</s>LABOR’S barnstorming victory at the WA election has been blamed on a controversial preference deal that tied the Liberals with One Nation to confuse and alienate traditional conservative voters.

But as One Nation had a “shocker” and the Liberals a “bad day at the office”, as described by federal Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, the WA Nationals fought a rear-guard action amid significant voter backlash primarily aimed at ousting unpopular, long-serving WA Liberal Premier Colin Barnett.

With vote-counting continuing, the WA Labor party easily surpassed the 30 seats needed to win a majority government in the Lower House; having claimed 36 to the Liberals 11.

The WA Nationals look to have five electorates while the fortunes of party leader Brendon Grylls in the north-west seat of Pilbara and Tony Crook in Kalgoorlie remain in delicate balance.

The Nationals may also win up to four Upper House positions - down from five - comprising two in the Agricultural Region and one each in Mining and Pastoral and the South West.

Labor also looks headed towards a strong majority in the Upper House; including two representatives coming from the Agricultural Region where traditionally they’ve held only one.

But One Nation may only claim two as many as members - Colin Tincknell in the South West region and Robin Scott in Mining and Pastoral - despite forecasts of potentially claiming four places, to strike a shared balance of power scenario with the Nationals.

Voter polling had One Nation running at about 14 per cent early on in the election campaign but it plunged to 8pc in the final stages and failed to hit 5pc, at yesterday’s poll.

The landslide election result is also set to see the Liberal Agriculture and Food Minister Mark Lewis unable to retain his position in parliament via the Mining and Pastoral region, where the Liberals may only claim one place.

Speculation also suggests Labor’s Lisa Baker - who holds the metropolitan seat of Maylands - could jump ahead of shadow Mick Murray to become the new Labor Agriculture and Food Minister.

As the election loomed closer, and analysts tipped Labor would easily deny the Liberal/National government a third, four-year term in government, the WA Liberals agreed to preference One Nation ahead of the WA Nationals in the Upper House, in exchange for Lower House preferences.

“The first and only game in town is retaining government and if One Nation preferences can help us do that, then so be it,” WA federal O’Connor MP Rick Wilson said ahead of polling day.

But as WA voters clearly backed Labor, they also rejected One Nation’s radical policies in areas like foreign investment and appear to have also reacted against ongoing controversy linked to slack candidate vetting; including the disqualification of former One Nation WA federal Senator and one-time Williams farmer Rod Culleton amid a minefield of ongoing legal battles, including bankruptcy.

Today in the wake of Labor’s crushing win Barnaby Joyce slammed the controversial preference deal that disadvantaged the WA Nationals in the Upper House to expand One Nation’s presence, while boosting the Liberals claim for Lower House seats.

"All the imbroglio regarding preferences means people start to over-assess and exaggerate what they think the support is of their new partner and they also just confuse their constituency," Mr Joyce said.

“It's in the Liberal party's interest to be close to the National party and it's in the National party's interest to be close to Liberal party and it’s in both interests not to be close to anybody else.

"They talk to different constituencies but people see them as a team and on election-day you should just stick to that idea.”

Mr Joyce said it wasn’t a “good day in the office” for the WA Liberals and many questions would now be asked about the final result.

“As a general principle, they overestimated the support of One Nation and in the process possibly compromised the view people had about their association with the National Party,” he said of the Liberals.

He said the WA Nationals had performed well considering the Liberals’ poor showing and was “confident” holding onto the seats of Pilbara and Kalgoorlie, while calling One Nation’s effort "a bit of a shocker".

WA Nationals Upper House Agricultural Region member Paul Brown said he was now considering his future options after failing at his bid to shift to the Lower House, via the prized regional seat of Geraldton.

Mr Brown sought to take on Liberal incumbent Ian Blayney who was marginally ahead of his Labor candidate on Sunday, during the ongoing vote-count.

But he said if he knew about the Liberals and One Nation preference deal, he may have decided to stay in the Upper House where he was elected in 2013.

Mr Brown said the “palpable hatred” of Colin Barnett also wasn’t a determining factor when he decided to make the move to the Lower House, in late 2015, and the proposed privatisation of Western Power wasn’t a discussion point in Geraldton.

“The Liberal party killed us; there was a clear and palpable hatred of Colin Barnett in the community,” he said.

“But the Nationals held their own against One Nation in the bush so that’s a positive outcome.

“When I stuck my hand up to run for Geraldton, it was on the back of the good work done by the Nationals throughout regional WA building infrastructure.

“But that was before the rise of this discussion about the potential sale of Western Power and also the Liberal preference deal with One Nation wasn’t a factor or the feeling of anger towards Colin Barnett.

“However, that’s the hand I was dealt and I accept the outcome; the voters are always right.”

Mr Brown said he would now take some time out to spend with his family and would not be left “stranded” due to his livestock and feedlot business in northern-WA, connected to the live export trade.

“Should I have stayed in the Upper House – probably I should have and would still be in parliament but I gave it a shot,” he said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull defended Mr Barnett saying he’d provided eight and a half years of “very strong leadership” as the WA Premier.

“Colin has had a very long career in public life and as Premier he took the reins when Western Australia was going through the global financial crisis,” he said.

“He’s led the state through a once-in-a-generation, once-in-a-century mining boom and of course, as it inevitably wound back, he’s led the state through that transition.

“He’s made a remarkable contribution to Western Australia and indeed to the nation.

“Western Australians and Australians owe him a debt of gratitude for the work he’s done.”

But asked whether the Liberal leader had made a mistake preferencing One Nation ahead of the Nationals, Mr Turnbull said Mr Barnett had “summed it up very well when he said overwhelmingly it was the ‘it’s time’ factor”.

“It’s a government that as he said, had been in for eight and a half years,” he said.

“The history is that it’s very hard to win re-election after that length of time - so that was overwhelmingly the factor.

“It was decided on state issues and the result was pretty much as had been expected for quite some time.”

Mr Turnbull said preferences were a matter for the Liberal party’s WA division and were always entered into with the intention and objective of maximising the vote and parliamentary representation.

“The next federal election is more than two years away - all preference decision will be considered by the party organisation closer to an election,” he said.

Mr Shorten said West Australians voted for a government which would put local jobs and apprentices first, invest in public transport and stop the privatisation of Western Power.

“Above all, West Australians have put their trust in a leader with the courage to stand up for what he believes in,” he said.

“Mark McGowan and Labor refused to horse-trade their values with One Nation and have been rewarded for it.

“Mark ran an outstanding campaign and deserves this victory.

“His campaign reflected who he is – a down to earth bloke, a hard worker, and a person driven by his values.”

With potentially three Upper House seats, The WA Greens congratulated the incoming McGowan government on a well-fought campaign and in claiming to have helped disrupt One Nation’s national momentum, said they looked forward to working constructively to address urgent challenges facing WA, “no matter what the final makeup of parliament”.

In reference to One Nation leader and Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson, senior federal Labor MP Anthony Albanese said “the mob have worked her out”.

“She is good at identifying problems and grievances but she doesn’t provide solutions and the deal with the Liberal Party showed her to be just another political party looking to put people into parliament rather than someone who acts as a matter of principle and I think it hurt both of them,” he said.

“Mark McGowan and WA Labor stood up as the real alternative, as the party that had a plan for Western Australia’s future and I think this is a rejection and a very bad result for One Nation.

“And again, the Liberal Party have to decide if they are going to be a partner of One Nation or if they are going to stand alone as a party of mainstream Australia.

“In the Queensland election, unless they commit to not give preferences to One Nation above mainstream political parties, they will be committing exactly the same mistake.”</s>WA election: New era for Labor as Mark McGowan elected Premier in landslide

WA Premier-elect Mark McGowan has vowed to get to work immediately on implementing his ambitious platform, after Labor was swept into office in a landslide that claimed the scalps of at least four Liberal ministers.

Mr McGowan ended eight-and-a-half years in opposition for Labor, inflicting a powerful defeat on Colin Barnett's Government and the Liberal Party.

Labor needed to win 10 additional seats to form government — but it picked up at least 18 and may take as many as 21, and has secured a sizeable parliamentary majority.

The 16 per cent swing against the Liberals saw at least four ministers lose their seats.

The ABC's projections show ministers John Day, Andrea Mitchell, Paul Miles and Albert Jacob all fell on a disastrous night for the Liberals.

Liberal leadership aspirant Joe Francis and Nationals leader Brendon Grylls are facing nervous waits to find out if their parliamentary careers are over, while Agriculture Minister Mark Lewis may have lost his Upper House spot.

Former Liberal ministers Tony Simpson and Murray Cowper and Legislative Assembly speaker Michael Sutherland were among the other casualties.

The party's night was perhaps encapsulated in a single tweet by Barnett Government minister and Liberal powerbroker Peter Collier at 9:10pm as the result crystallised.

If the current projected results eventuate, there will just be three women in the Liberal partyroom — Liza Harvey, Libby Mettam and Donna Farragher.

The size of Labor's gains exceeded even the party's most optimistic assessments, with its victories over Mr Cowper in Murray-Wellington and Ms Mitchell in Kingsley considered shock results.

Labor is expected to hold between 38 and 41 seats in the 59-seat Legislative Assembly.

But Labor's control is likely to be much weaker in the Upper House, where One Nation and a handful of other micro parties have a chance of getting elected.

One Nation's primary vote of just 4.7 per cent in the Lower House was far worse than the party had been hoping, but it fared slightly better in the Upper House - where it could still win one or two seats.

Mr McGowan used his victory speech to reaffirm several of his key election commitments, including the delivery of Labor's multi-billion-dollar Metronet public transport system.

"We will get to work immediately on carrying out our plans.

"You deserve good government and, with my team, I am committed to delivering just that."



The remarkable thing in this result is the collapse of the Liberal vote.

 

The National Party has struggled in Kalgoorlie and Pilbara, which are the two mining districts, but their halted vote has held up quite comfortably in all the other areas where the Nationals contested.

 

It's the Liberal Party vote that suffered.

 

[The] collapse in their first-preference vote … hasn't gone to One Nation, a lot of it's gone straight to Labor.

Labor set itself an ambitious series of campaign goals, including completing the first stage of Metronet within six years while bringing the budget back to surplus by 2019-20.

Mr McGowan also used his speech to pay tribute to the union movement for its assistance during the campaign.

The new government is likely to have to deal with a fractured Upper House, with One Nation, Fluoride Free WA and the Liberal Democrats currently projected by the ABC to pick up one seat each, and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers forecast to win two seats.

The Liberal post-mortem examination has already commenced following the party's disastrous result, but the outgoing Premier said he would not be drawn into determining where it all went wrong.

He said his party ran a "great campaign", saying time was the main factor in the result.

Attention will quickly turn to who will lead the Liberals in opposition, with Mr Francis declaring he wants the job but facing an uncertain parliamentary future.

Liza Harvey and Dean Nalder are seen as the other strongest contenders.</s>Labor is headed for a landslide victory in the WA election with exit polls showing an almost 12 per cent swing in its favour.

The opposition, led by Mark McGowan, needed only a 10 per cent swing to claim the nine extra seats to form government and oust Premier Colin Barnett after 8.5 years.

Results don't look as promising for One Nation, despite a big push by leader Pauline Hanson who campaigned hard in the state for a week before the poll.

Its primary vote slumped to six per cent, down from the nine it averaged during the campaign, making it unlikely to claim a single seat.

It is a crushing disappointment after Senator Hanson predicted her party would win five seats - two in the lower house and three in the upper house.

The Channel Nine/Galaxy poll taken of voters as they left the ballot polls has the swing at 11.8 per cent to Labor, which could net them 17 new seats for a total of 38.

To form a majority government, Labor will need at least 30 of the parliament's 59 seats. It had 21 after the 2013 election to the Coalition's 38.

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has already called the election for his party, congratulating Mr McGowan via Twitter.

'Congratulations to Mark McGowan & WA Labor on a huge victory!' he wrote.

ABC's election tracker already predicts Labor will claim 35 seats to the Coalition's 24, with 19 seats in doubt, with just 30 per cent of the vote counted.

According to the exit poll, Labor will pick up 54.5 per cent of the vote on a two-party preferred basis, while the Liberals will have just 45.5 per cent.

On primary votes, the ALP is on 41 up 7.9 per cent from the 2013 election, while the Liberal party has slumped 14.1 per cent to 33.

The ReachTEL and Newspoll published on Saturday morning had Labor ahead 54-46 on two party preferred basis.

Election Day was marred by dirty tricks, with voters spammed with text messages warning them not to vote for Labor and fake flyers for a mosque development handed out.

The texts read 'FACT: Household bills will go up under a Labor Government. Mark McGowan is not worth the risk.'

Meanwhile, letterboxes in Perth's northern suburbs were stuffed with fake flyers proposing the construction of a fictitious mosque in the area.

The flyers were knocked up to look like real City of Stirling development proposal notices about an application by the Islamic Council of WA.

Senator Hanson denied involvement, saying it was not her style or that of One Nation.

'I'm upfront with people, I always have been, so we don't go out putting these sort of leaflets out to people,' she told the ABC.

'I don't believe in fearmongering, that's something you'd expect of the Labor party or the other political parties, that's not One Nation.'</s>On election night in 2013, the Liberal Party dominated Australian politics. Tony Abbott has just thrashed Labor, picking up 90 seats. The Liberals governed in the two biggest states, and the LNP under Campbell Newman had nearly obliterated Queensland Labor the year before; the Liberals governed in the boom state of Western Australia. Hopes were high that the Weatherill government would be dispatched in South Australia, and Labor’s time in Tasmania looked over. A long period of Liberal ascendancy appeared certain.
After eight years in power, the Liberal Party is defeated by the Labor Party in a landslide election. Mark McGowan is set to become the Australian state's new Premier.