Labor’s return to power was no surprise but seat by seat this election revealed some of the biggest surprises in WA’s political history.
Liberal strongholds have fallen, pushing the party into the political abyss, while several Labor seats have blown pollster predictions apart in what was the party’s best result in Australian history.
WAtoday has looked at the vote count as it stands at the end of election night and picked the seats where we got the biggest surprise outside of the headline-making defeats in Dawesville, Riverton, Scarborough and Hillarys.
Liberal legacy crumbles in western suburbs
Bill Marmion looks to lose the seat of Nedlands.Credit:Philip Gostelow
In elections past, regardless of the winning party, Nedlands was always locked up by the Liberals early on.
This year, however, longstanding member and former Barnett government minister Bill Marmion is actually trailing his Labor opponent Katrina Stratton thanks to a 9.5 per cent swing against him.
To remind our readers; this is a seat that includes the suburb of Dalkeith, which has a median annual income of $200,000 according to the last census and counts Gina Rinehart as one of its residents.
Likewise, South Perth has always been a beacon of blue but the swing has hit it hard and with the retirement of popular local member John McGrath, Labor’s Geoff Baker has romped it home over lawyer Ryan Chorley with just under 50 per cent of the primary vote.
One of the most marginal seats yet to be called by pollsters is Churchlands, where incumbent member and shadow treasurer Sean L’Estrange is trailing Labor’s Christine Tonkin by just 0.4 per cent. In any normal year, Churchlands would have been called for the Liberals within minutes of polls being closed.
