2025 Western Australian state election

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2025 Western Australian state election
← 2021 8 March 2025 2029 →
All 59 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
and all 37 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Council
Opinion polls
  Mark McGowan headshot.jpg
NAT
LIB
Leader Mark McGowan Mia Davies David Honey
Party Labor National Liberal
Leader since 23 January 2012 21 March 2017 23 March 2021
Leader's seat Rockingham Central Wheatbelt Cottesloe
Last election 53 seats 4 seats 2 seats
Current seats 53 seats 4 seats 2 seats
Seats needed Steady Increase 26 Increase 28
Incumbent Premier

Mark McGowan
Labor



The 2025 Western Australian state election is scheduled to be held on 8 March 2025 to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, where all 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 37 seats in the Legislative Council will be up for election.

Candidates will be elected to single-member seats in the Legislative Assembly via full-preferential instant-runoff voting. In the Legislative Council, 37 candidates are elected across the state, which functions as a single electorate.

Background[]

The 2021 state election saw Labor win one of the most comprehensive victories on record at the state or territory level in Australia. It won 53 of the 59 seats, surpassing its own record set four years earlier for the largest government majority and seat tally in Western Australian parliamentary history.[1][2]

Electoral system[]

Candidates are elected to single-member seats in the Legislative Assembly via full-preferential instant-runoff voting. In the Legislative Council, 37 candidates are elected across the state, which functions as a single electorate.

Legislative Council voting changes[]

In September 2021, the McGowan Labor Government introduced the "one vote, one value" legislation to change the voting system for the Legislative Council at this election. Under the then-existing voting system for the upper house, which had been in place since 2005, voters were divided into six regions of unequal weight, each of whom were responsible for electing six candidates (36 in total). Three of the regions were based in metropolitan Perth, and three in the regions. This meant that a region like the Mining and Pastoral region had 16% of the average number of electors in the three metropolitan regions.[3][4] The government proposed abolishing the regions and replacing them with what it called "one vote, one value" system, where the whole state functions as one electorate that elects 37 members. This increased the size of the council by one seat. Group voting tickets, which were abolished for the federal Senate in 2016 and are utilised only for the Victorian Legislative Council, would also be abolished.[5] Votes are instead cast under an optional preferential voting system, requiring electors to vote for one or more preferred parties above the dividing line on the ballot paper, or at least 20 candidates below the dividing line.[6] The legislation passed the parliament on 17 November 2021 and received royal assent seven days thereafter.[7][8][9]

Key dates[]

Elections are scheduled for the second Saturday of March every four years, in line with legislative changes made in 2011.[10]

While a fixed-term exists, the Governor of Western Australia may still dissolve the Assembly and call an election early on the advice of the Premier.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ WA Election 2021 ABC News
  2. ^ Mark McGowan leads Labor landslide in WA as Liberals' worst fears are realised The Guardian 13 March 2021
  3. ^ Green, Antony (6 March 2017). "The Growing Bias Against Perth and the South West in WA's Legislative Council". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  4. ^ Green, Antony. "WA's Zonal Electoral System and the Legislative Council Reform Debate – Antony Green's Election Blog". Antony Green's Election Blog. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  5. ^ Rhiannon Shine and Jacob Kagi (15 September 2021). "Mark McGowan announces sweeping changes to WA's electoral system, abolishing regions". ABC News.
  6. ^ "EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM: CONSTITUTIONAL AND ELECTORAL LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (ELECTORAL EQUALITY) BILL 2021" (PDF). parliament.wa.gov.au. Refer to pp. 3
  7. ^ Rhiannon Shine and Nicolas Perpitch (17 November 2021). "WA government uses majority to introduce sweeping changes to electoral system". ABC News.
  8. ^ "Progress of Bills: Constitutional and Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Equality) Bill 2021". parliament.wa.gov.au.
  9. ^ "Constitutional and Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Equality) Act 2021" (PDF). legislation.wa.gov.au.
  10. ^ "State Elections". Western Australia Electoral Commission. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  11. ^ Electoral and Constitution Amendment Act 2011 (WA), section 5
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