Mark McGowan rules supreme after seismic election win for finely oiled political machine

It is impossible to imagine less favourable headwinds for the Liberal Party, but they made the very worst of a bad situation.

Mark McGowan’s Labor Party is the most finely oiled of political machines.

It is meticulously professional, totally intolerant of internal indiscipline, and ruthless in its messaging.

But the key insight is McGowan’s: he governs from the centre.

“We must govern for all West Australians,” he said “Being a part of the mainstream is crucial for success.”

He promised to continue to run a stable, competent, responsible and caring government.

Mr McGowan has been working at this for more than two decades.

He is a student of history and consumes volumes of political history and biography.

The New South Welshman by birth has absorbed and unlocked the West Australian psyche like few politicians before him.

In a time of extreme uncertainty he became the protector in chief.

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And he has been locked, laser focused, on the insight that economic success is the foundation of political success.

On the run into the 2017 election he waved his plan for jobs at every opportunity.

After a decade of doldrums, the economic tailwinds at the Government’s back have been extraordinary.

Iron ore at $170 a tonne, house prices finally rising, and money circulating through the economy that would ordinarily be spent overseas or interstate due to closed borders.

West Australians finally feel good about their circumstances, and when you layer over the sunshine and the lifestyle compared to the European and American deaths and lockdowns, what other choice is there?

Mr McGowan’s most unappreciated political skill is keeping Labor’s factions – particularly its left which is dominant in the party organisation – in line.

That Labor effectively has no policy on climate, for example, is of no consequence. There is not even a murmur of dissent.

Now Mr McGowan rules supreme: it is his party.

The exact make up of the new Liberal Party room will be determined over the coming days, but it could yet be a tandem bicycle.

Libby Mettam in Vasse is a worker but David Honey in Cottesloe, Sean L’Estrange in Churchlands, Bill Marmion in Nedlands and Tony Krstcevic in Carine have proved themselves duds.

Zak Kirkup could have been a cornerstone for a new Liberal era but was a lamb to the slaughter and will exit the stage.

The Liberals must urgently find a counterveiling force to Nick Goiran, whose evangelical candidates alienate that mainstream Mr McGowan has made his own.

Peter Collier should go.

Most of all, the Liberals must figure out what they stand for and how they can help ease the burden on and solve the problems of the working families of the WA suburbs and towns.

There must be a feeling of dread spreading across the Nullarbor and towards Scott Morrison in Canberra.