"

19 Western Australia

Jacob Broom; Narelle Miragliotta; Sarah Murray; Susannah Nichols; and Justin Harbord

Key terms/names

Constitution Act 1889 (WA), Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1899 (WA), Electoral Act 1907 (WA), Federation, secession, Western Australian Constitution Act 1890 (UK)

This chapter[1] surveys the political history of Western Australia (WA), explores the state’s relationship to the federation, unpacks the state’s political economy, and outlines its key constitutional, institutional and electoral features. We show the ways in which WA’s politics is shaped by its particular historical, political-economic and spatial characteristics.

European settlement

Indigenous peoples inhabited the territory of what is now WA for many millennia before the establishment of the Swan River Colony, in June 1829, by British legislation introduced the month prior. The British view of this land at that time was described as: an area ‘that had been known to the Europeans longer than any other part of the continent and was the least wanted’.[2] British settlement was a pre-emptive response to geo-strategic concerns about French colonial ambitions in the western half of the continent.

The particular circumstances that led to the colony’s founding by the British would shape its developmental arc for the first five decades of settlement. The British showed little appetite to invest in the nascent colony, hampering the colony’s economic growth for several decades and undermining the case for self-government.[3] Moreover, well into the first half of the 1880s, there was little urgency for responsible government among WA’s elites, who feared that mass enfranchisement would weaken their grip over colonial society.[4]

When WA did attain self-government, it did so a number of decades behind the other original colonies. Self-government of the colony became effective from 21 October 1890, with the UK parliament’s enactment of the Western Australian Constitution Act 1890 (UK), to which was scheduled the Constitution Act 1889 (WA) (CA).[5]

The achievement of self-government was not without tribulation. On some views, the colony could have asserted responsible government unilaterally; however, it opted to petition the Imperial parliament in order to ensure its control over crown lands. Unlike its colonial counterparts, any declaration of responsible government, while it may have been constitutionally possible, did not come with an automatic jurisdiction over unused crown lands. The Imperial powers reckoned that the small size of the colony’s population, concentrated in the south-west corner, rendered it inadequate to the task of managing the vast territory that it sought to govern. The Imperial authorities also held a well-founded view that the colony could not be trusted to respect the dignity and liberty of Aboriginal peoples.[6]

For these reasons, the eventual grant of self-government by the Imperial parliament was encumbered by several conditions: a nominated upper house; constitutional protections for the Aboriginal inhabitants of the colony in the form of the now redundant section 70;[7] and the ability of British government to divide the colony or unite it with another should circumstances require it. While the compromises were reluctantly agreed to by the colony, the outcome was nevertheless hailed as a triumph of ‘the cherished birthright of Englishmen’.[8]

Federation

The elation of achieving self-government was, however, quickly overshadowed by the inexorable march towards Federation. WA faced the spectre of having to relinquish its newfound independence before it had a chance to exercise it fully. Compounding WA’s apprehension was that almost half of its revenue was drawn from intercolonial tariffs. The new federal Constitution would remove barriers to trade and commerce between the states, thereby undercutting an important revenue source for WA.[9]

WA did eventually vote to enter the federation, with the initiative obtaining nearly a 70 per cent ‘yes’ vote on 31 July 1900. However, the question was only presented to the people as a result of intervention by colonial authorities. In order to counter the recalcitrance exhibited by WA’s political elite, colonial authorities adopted a carrot and stick approach. The carrot took the form of a deal to address the colony’s financial anxieties, while the stick was the threat to annex the colony’s lucrative goldfields.[10] WA’s sluggish acceptance of its political fate meant that the vote on the question of Federation occurred 22 days after the enactment of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (UK), but in time for the commencement of Federation on 1 January the following year. WA’s initial reluctance is captured in the preamble of the federal Constitution, which omits WA as one of the parties that ‘have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth’.

The state’s ambivalence towards federation has remained a distinctive feature of its history and its identity. Some regard WA’s tentativeness as pathological, with one former state government minister observing that one need only ‘[s]cratch a Western Australian and you find a secessionist underneath’.[11] At different points in time, WA’s feelings of grievance have found expression in the call for secession.

The most serious of such efforts occurred in 1933, when WA, reeling from the Great Depression, voted to secede from the federation. The plebiscite obtained over 60 per cent support.[12] While the government of the time, led by Premier Collier, dutifully – if reluctantly – petitioned the Imperial parliament for relief, its refusal to hear the matter led to the supplication being dropped.[13] The Imperial parliament declared that it would be unconstitutional for the state to secede without federal parliamentary support.[14]

There have been intermittent calls for WA to consider its future outside of the federation.[15] While the political class have generally been careful not to utter the ‘s(ecession)’ word, they have come close at times. In 2015,[16] the Premier warned that WA’s ‘future’ might not ‘lay with the rest of Australia in a financial or economic sense’, with the state facing its ‘Boston tea party moment’.[17]  Questions about WA’s commitment to the federation again resurfaced during the COVID pandemic following the then Premier’s declaration that the state would be turned ‘into its own island, within an island – our own country’.[18]

WA and the federation today

While WA’s testy relationship with the federation has led to it being labelled by scholars as the ‘reluctant state’,[19] others have questioned whether secessionist sentiments have ever reflected a genuine intention to renounce the federation.[20] It is, perhaps, overly simplistic to interpret secession rhetoric as a quirk of WA’s political culture or a provocation to extract concessions from the Commonwealth. Such claims are perhaps better understood as an ‘expression of the powerlessness felt by the residents’ who perceive themselves to be on the periphery of political power.[21]

Several factors conspire to fuel WA’s grievance. The first is the state’s geography and demography. WA occupies 33 per cent of the continent, covering a total area of 2.5 million square kilometres, with a population of only 3 million people. It is the second least densely populated region in Australia, behind the Northern Territory.[22] While the majority of the population is urbanised, its residents are spread across nine regional areas, which vary significantly in geographic size and population.[23]

WA’s nine regional areas are vital to the economic health of the state and the federation. According to 2024 data,[24] WA accounted for 45 per cent of Australia’s merchandise exports, the bulk of which was generated from natural resources and agricultural production derived from its regions. To put this into context, the second biggest exporting state, Queensland, was responsible for 22 per cent of Australia’s exports.

However, the state’s size, population dispersion and the diversity of its regions generate significant governance demands.[25] In ‘lacking economies of scale’, the regions present ‘multiple challenges, especially in terms of inadequate infrastructure provision and service delivery’,[26] that are not confronted by many of WA’s counterparts to the same extent.[27] While the ‘characteristics’ of its economy and population are recognised as making the costs of delivering government services in WA ‘higher than the national average’, sympathy for WA’s plight is often outweighed by its ‘above-average revenue raising capacity’.[28]

The second factor complicating WA’s relationship to the federation is the ‘tyranny of distance’. WA’s capital is closer to Jakarta than it is to Canberra, and it does not share a time zone with any of its federal cousins. Easement of the obstacles of distance from the eastern seaboard was slow to occur.[29] While contemporary innovations in communication and transportation have removed the burden of geographic isolation to a great extent, the perception that remoteness equates to political invisibility endures.

Pre-federation WA politicians were aware of the challenges that distance would present for the state’s visibility in the Commonwealth.[30] Moreover, the usefulness of the Commonwealth parliament for channelling the state’s grievances quickly proved minimal. WA’s representation in the House of Representatives was, as it is today, diminutive (just over 10 per cent of the total share) owing to its small population, while the party politicisation of the Senate quickly extinguished its role as a states’ chamber.

A third factor that places a strain on the state’s relationship with the federation is the structure of its economy. From its inception, the WA economy was distinct from the more populous ‘manufacturing’ eastern states. WA’s economy has depended heavily on exports, principally agricultural commodities and resources. This has meant that economic decisions that benefit the eastern economies have not always aligned with WA interests (see below).

The sense of disenfranchisement has been magnified by the belief that the Commonwealth has exploited WA’s resource-rich economy without fair recompense, while their state and territory counterparts have been actively ‘disincentive[d[‘ from developing their industries.[31] The consequences of WA’s booming resource economy have collided with fiscal equalisation arrangements that are slow to adjust to changes in the economic fortunes of the states.

Another source of WA’s disgruntlement can be traced to the expansionist tendencies of the Commonwealth. Very quickly, the federation collapsed into an arrangement that is more ‘centralised than was ever envisaged or intended, indeed one of the most centralised of all true federations’.[32] The failures of the original design, judgments of the High Court and the Commonwealth’s willingness to use its financial muscle to encroach into state policy areas has led to what one former premier has described as the ‘smothering of the states’.[33]

The dynamics of WA’s political economy

WA has a political economy distinct from the other states. Since colonisation, it has been resource-led, driven by the development of land for extractive industries and agriculture, particularly the former.[34] While the state government made efforts in the mid-20th century to establish manufacturing industries, namely the refinement of iron and steel, the isolation of WA’s urban population made this a difficult proposition.[35] WA’s economic base is therefore located in its regions. Iron ore mining in the Pilbara and gas extraction at the North West Shelf have been the principal contributors to WA’s growth model since the 1960s. The WA economy is thus often discussed in terms of its recurrent ‘mining booms’, which coincide with global demand for resources. As of 2023–24, the mining industry makes up 44 percent of gross state product (GSP).[36]

The demand for these resources largely originates outside of Australia. The development of WA’s resource industry has involved international capital rather than domestic capital and export-led growth rather than consumption-led growth.[37] This places WA in a difficult position relative to the federation, as its economic model rests on its political ties with Asian countries more than its embeddedness in the Australian state. In the 20th century, WA’s main export market was Japan, but the state has benefited considerably from the enormous demand for iron ore in China since 2000. The percentage of goods exported to China from WA grew from six percent in 1994–5 to 50 percent in 2024–5.[38] Some commentators argue that this has made WA politicians reluctant to criticise China, with Liberal Party Premier Colin Barnett quipping in 2011 that Beijing was becoming more important to WA than Canberra.[39]

Government involvement in WA’s economic development has been intensive compared with other states. Concessions on royalties, capital investment, and long-term access guarantees have been common in WA’s mining industry, with the rationale that attracting foreign capital is not possible without these public guarantees.[40] Across both major parties, WA’s development policy has sat in an awkward position between a macro-level modernisation-driven developmentalism and micro-level neoliberal competition approach. The state sees itself as an important enabler of industry, but is rarely heavily integrated in the distribution of rewards of growth in the form of redistributive spending funded by taxes and royalties. Instead, the wealth arising from mining booms is spent on urban infrastructure projects.

The reliance of the WA economy on resource exports has led to concerns about its exposure to global resource markets and calls for diversification. Since 2019, the Labor government has sought to expand priority non-mining sectors, including manufacturing for renewable energy technologies, tourism, international education, and defence, amongst others.[41] As of 2025, this has not been matched with sufficient investment to achieve diversification, but it is early days.[42]

The structure of WA’s political economy has fuelled conflicts with the federal government. The loudest amongst these conflicts in the 21st century has been the distribution of benefits from the GST. WA’s high revenue from mining royalties caused by rising iron ore prices diminished its share of the GST relative to its contribution. Barnett aggressively pursued reform to the GST formula for most of his tenure as Premier (2008-2017), but only saw success after his defeat, in the form of the Commonwealth granting significant concessions to WA which saw its GST recipience increase and hold at a very high level.[43] Another example has been Labor premier Roger Cook’s activism against the Federal Labor Government over environmental regulation which could harm mining interests.[44] WA’s political economy generates a specific ruling class within the state which is not afraid to make its political influence known.[45] It is coloured by the big, media-savvy personalities of its resource billionaires, such as Gina Rinehart and Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest.

WA’s relative prosperity has meant that it has the highest median income of the ‘big’ states, only behind the ACT and NT (2022–23 statistics).[46] It also has the fastest wages growth of any state since 2018–19.[47] This is largely about high rates of pay in the mining sector, which has consequences for social inequality in WA. For example, its gender pay gap is greater than the Australian average, reflecting male domination in the mining sector.[48] More people are employed in WA by the highly feminised healthcare and social assistance sector than mining, and there are comparable numbers of employees in construction and retail.[49] As such, despite its high median wage, WA has significant problems with poverty and housing, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.[50] The gains of WA’s growth model are not distributed equally, and it is axes of race and gender that structure its inequality.

Constitutional overview

Prior to 1890, the colony was under British control, with a locally residing governor, the first being Captain James Stirling. While it had a Legislative Council of 18 men, of which six were appointed and the remainder elected, its enactments had to be reserved for Her Majesty’s pleasure, and the extent of executive power forestalled responsible government in the colony. The Constitution Act brought about a fully elected Legislative Assembly and, initially, an appointed Legislative Council, which also became an elected body in 1893, prior to the six-year limit allowed for by section 6 of the Act.[51]

Within a decade, amendments to the franchise and the Council and Assembly were proposed by the colony’s first Premier, Sir John Forrest. While initially taking the form of amendments to the Constitution Act, it was eventually determined that a separate and distinct constitutional enactment should be introduced.[52] To this day, WA retains two unconsolidated constitutional enactments: the CA and the Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1899 (WA).[53]

A little over a century later, the state’s colonial apron strings were loosened with the passage of the Australia Acts 1986 (Cth and UK). These dual enactments meant that the British parliament no longer had legislative powers over the states, repugnant legislative restrictions were removed and the avenue of appeal from the state Supreme Courts to the Privy Council was abolished.

In 2015, the preamble to the CA was amended to ‘acknowledge the Aboriginal people as the First People of Western Australia and traditional custodians of the land’, followed by the statement that the WA parliament ‘seeks to effect a reconciliation with the Aboriginal people of Western Australia’. Nevertheless, the consequences of colonialisation, and its corresponding entrenched disadvantage, continues to exert an outsized effect on Aboriginal people across many social, health, economic and well-being measures, including high rates of incarceration and deaths in custody.[54]

Key government institutions

The Australia Act 1986, although releasing Imperial legislative control, retained the role of the monarchy in the state governmental structure. The state governor was ‘Her Majesty’s representative’ (section 7(1)) although slight alterations were made to the governor’s office and it was set out that advice to the monarch was to be ‘tendered by the Premier’ (section 7(5)).

The governor’s role includes ceremonial as well as constitutional functions, such as assenting to legislation, proroguing parliament, issuing electoral writs, chairing the Executive Council (which makes official governmental decisions) and making governmental appointments.[55] In almost all instances, the WA governor acts on advice, unless rare circumstances arise to justify the exercise of the governor’s reserve powers.

The present Assembly contains 59 members with a maximum four-year term, and the Council has 37 members, drawn from across the whole of the state, with a fixed four-year term. The Premier leads the party with a majority in the Assembly and presides over ministerial decisions made by the Cabinet. There can be up to 17 state ministerial positions, and one must be filled by a member of the Council.

The WA parliament has plenary legislative power to make ‘laws for the peace, order and good government’ of the state,[56] including the ability to enact extra-territorial laws. While there are some express constitutional limits on its power through the terms of the Commonwealth Constitution, the High Court of Australia, since federation, has also determined that some implied legislative limits exist.[57] Further, the CA includes restrictive procedures that seek to make it more difficult for the parliament to enact or amend particular laws by standard legislative procedures (Bills must be passed by absolute majorities or referendum, or both). While such provisions will not always be binding on a later parliament and require a suitably authoritative source to be so, they seek to apply to Bills that, for example, abolish the Council or Assembly, alter the office of governor or seek to amend the restrictive procedures themselves.

The state judicial system, comprising the Supreme Court, the Magistrates Court, the District Court, the Children’s Court and the Family Court, although not formally independent from the legislative and executive arms, enjoy a de facto separation by convention. This is also protected to an extent by the integrated court structure that chapter III of the Commonwealth Constitution contemplates for ‘courts of a State’ and by the constitutional role vested in the Supreme Court of WA by the CA in section 73(6).[58]

Other governmental agencies, referred to as the fourth arm or integrity arm, include the Corruption and Crime Commission, the Auditor-General, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administrative Investigations (the WA Ombudsman), the Commissioner for Public Sector Standards and the Office of the Information Commissioner. These offices jointly comprise the ‘Integrity Coordinating Group’ of WA.[59]

WA’s Public Sector

The WA public sector is established under the Public Sector Management Act 1994 (WA) (PSM Act) and forms the administrative arm of the WA government. It comprises the public service, primarily consisting of government departments and senior executive service (SES) organisations whose staff advise ministers and administer government programs. Departments are created, renamed or abolished under the PSM Act, with each Department also operating under its own enabling legislation that defines its statutory remit.[60] As at 2025, the public service included 25 departments and 43 SES organisations.[61]

The public sector further includes non-public service entities, which are a wider group of statutory bodies that include ministerial offices and non-SES organisations, such as the Environmental Protection Authority and the Corruption and Crime Commission. These entities operate under specific Acts and perform defined legislative or regulatory functions.[62] In 2025, there were 50 non-SES organisations and 17 ministerial offices. [63]

Outside of the public sector, there are other quasi-public sector entities that are not captured under the PSM Act. These include local governments, public universities and other authorities (e.g. government trading enterprises, parliamentary electorate offices and sworn officers of the WA Police Force).[64] These entities have greater independence but are required to comply with various public sector standards including ‘equal opportunity, misconduct and dealing with disclosure of wrongdoing’. [65]

The structure of the WA public sector reflects the diversity of its functions and governance arrangements. It has three central agencies that support the WA government and provide a form of administrative leadership and coordination across the public sector, these include the Departments of Treasury and Finance, Premier and Cabinet, and the Public Sector Commission. Line departments undertake policy activities and provide administrative support to their respective ministerial portfolios (e.g. Departments of Education, Health, and Fire and Emergency Services). Whereas SES organisations and other statutory bodies are established to carry out functions defined in their enabling legislation such as environmental protection, health service delivery, and integrity or accountability oversight.[66]

The WA public sector is supported by a large workforce which has grown steadily in recent years, increasing approximately 4 per cent annually since 2020. In 2024–25, the WA government sector employed 251,432 people (headcount), with 179,490 of these working within the public sector – representing 11.1 per cent of the total WA workforce.[67]

Given the public sector workforce’s size and the sector’s central role in service delivery, recent reforms have focused on strengthening the public sector to align it with government priorities. In 2025, the Premier announced that reform was needed to develop ‘a more resilient economy’ and ‘a better way to build’.[68] This led to nine departments undergoing ‘machinery of government’ changes and the creation of one new department. These changes are complemented by the Agency Capability Review Program, beginning in 2021, which is a sector-wide approach to assessing, improving and aligning organisational capabilities across the WA public sector[69].

Electoral law

WA operates under the oldest electoral legislation in Australia, with the current statute, the Electoral Act 1907 (WA), passed during the reign of Edward VII. While many of the original provisions of the primary Act remain in force, it has been significantly updated in response to changing societal and political norms (see Appendix).

The initial entitlement to vote in elections was based on a property franchise for those electors over 21 years of age, with the result that mostly white males met the qualification. While the property qualification was extinguished for the Assembly by 1907, an indirect property privilege prevailed until 1923 in that voters with property holdings in multiple electorates were entitled to vote in each of those districts. The property franchise remained for the Council until 1962.[70]

Women were granted the vote in the Assembly in 1899, making WA second only to South Australia (SA) to confer women’s suffrage. It was also the first state to elect a woman to parliament: Edith Cowan in 1921. The extension of suffrage to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on fully equal terms was not achieved until 1962. Initially, enrolment and voting were optional for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander electors, even though voting was compulsory for non-Indigenous electors from 1936.

Prior to the 2000s, the government had the power to call an election at any time of their choosing, provided they did not exceed the maximum length of the term of parliament. In 2011 there was a cross-party consensus that this privilege afforded the government an unfair electoral advantage, leading to calls to introduce fixed-term elections.[71]

Electoral systems

As is common across Australia’s bicameral parliaments, WA’s two chambers are elected under different electoral systems.

At the inception of responsible government, elections for the Assembly were conducted on a single-member plurality (‘first-past-the-post’) basis. In 1907, plurality was replaced with optional preferential voting (OPV), making WA the first Australian jurisdiction to introduce this method. In response to concerns from non-Labor parties about preference losses in three-way electoral contests, full preferential voting was adopted in 1911.[72]

Elections for the Council occur under proportional representation using the single transferrable vote (PR-STV), introduced in 1987.[73] PR-STV superseded the 1965 regime, comprising two-person electorates with staggered six-year terms, conducted under full preferential voting.[74] In 2021, a small but consequential change to the requirements for PR-STV was instituted. Group Voting Tickets[75] were abolished and optional preferential voting was introduced. This reform ended the practice of ‘secret preference deals’ among parties[76] and reduced the likelihood that a candidate would be elected on a very small primary vote as a result of a tactical preference deal.[77]

Electoral boundaries and ‘one vote, one value’

Prior to 1947, decisions regarding the state’s electoral boundaries were subject to ratification by parliament. However, the Electoral Distribution Act 1947 (WA) changed this and formalised the criteria to be considered when determining boundaries. This Act remained in force until the ‘one vote, one value’ reforms were introduced in 2005, removing vote weighting in the Assembly by no longer specifying the number of metropolitan and country districts.The challenge of balancing geography and demography when drawing electoral boundaries has been particularly contentious in WA. It was the last state to remove the zonal system, whereby country electorates averaged half the number of voters in metropolitan electorates. While this system was designed to compensate remote and regional areas for the challenges afforded by distance, it meant that country electorates could have 3 to 4 times fewer electors than metropolitan counterparts.The principle of ‘one vote, one value’ in the Legislative Assembly was eventually secured by the Gallop Labor government with the passage of the Constitution and Electoral Amendment Bill 2005 (WA).[1] Prior to this time, Labor’s efforts to introduce ‘one vote, one value’ legislation had been unsuccessful because the conservative parties, the beneficiaries of the zonal system, had enjoyed uninterrupted control of the Council and were able to block such reforms.Despite the introduction of ‘one vote one value’, significant affordances for geographically large regional Council electorates persisted ostensibly in recognition of the challenges of adequately representing a large area. Districts larger than 100,000 square kilometres were permitted 20 per cent fewer voters, compared to the usual 10 per cent tolerance allowed for other regions. This, however, produced significant malapportionment with some rural Council regions enjoying six times the number of voters than some metropolitan Council regions.Labor’s emphatic win at the 2021 state election provided the opportunity for the McGowan Labor government to legislate for electoral equality in the Council. The resulting Constitutional and Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Equality) Act 2021 provided, among other reforms, for a single statewide electorate, finally eradicating the last vestiges of rural malapportionment. The reform also increased the number of Councillors from 36 to 37 members.Since 2005, the state’s electoral boundaries are determined by three electoral distribution commissioners: a current or former Supreme Court judge (chair), the Electoral Commissioner and the Government Statistician.[1] Fenna and Murray 2023.[/footnote] Since this time, general elections have been held every four years on the second Saturday in March.

Political finance and public funding

Campaign finance restrictions were introduced in WA in 1904, in the form of election expenditure caps on candidates. It was not until 1996 that a comprehensive political finance scheme was adopted, with requirements for an annual disclosure of donations and electoral expenditure by parties and associated entities.

Concerns about the influence of money in elections prompted the McGowan Labor government to introduce a sweeping reform Bill in 2020 to parliament but it languished. In 2023, the Cook Labor government resumed this effort, securing the passage of the Electoral Amendment (Finance and Other Matters) Bill through parliament. Changes introduced by the Bill include caps on electoral expenditure; requirement for timely disclosure and publication of political contributions over $2600; and a prohibition on both foreign contributions and anonymous donations over the disclosure amount. The Bill also increased the rate of election campaign reimbursement from $2.26 to $4.40 per primary vote for eligible candidates.[78]

Parties and the party system

The core elements of WA’s party system had emerged by 1914. Prior to this time, elections and parliament were largely the preserve of ‘notables’, who formed loose groupings in parliament. The formation of the Australian Labor Party (Labor) in 1902 radically altered this dynamic. Created to represent newly enfranchised workers and unionists, Labor quickly developed into a disciplined electoral party, enabling it to dominate the contest for government for much of the period until the late 1950s.[79]

Labor’s organisational and political successes induced the mobilisation of the Liberal and National (formerly Country) parties. While a group claiming to represent business interests used the ‘Liberal’ label in 1911, it was not until the establishment of the federal Liberals in 1944 that the WA Liberals acquired the organisational discipline to emerge as the major non-Labor rival. For much of the period from the late 1950s until the 1980s,[80] the Liberals dominated government, although, since this time, they have alternated with Labor in office.[81] In the 13 general elections held since 1980 (2025), the Liberals have held government on six occasions, and Labor seven times.

The 2021 state election was notable for what it may augur for the future of the party system and for the Liberals more particularly. Following this election, the Liberals’ presence in the Assembly was reduced from 13 MPs to two – the second dramatic decline in their representation since 2013. Labor won 53 Assembly seats and 22 of the 36 Council vacancies (7 for the Liberals), granting it control over both chambers.[82] While the Liberals vote and seat share showed modest improvement at the 2025 state election, the party continues to wrestle with those same electoral and existential forces confronting other traditional centre–right parties in Australia and globally.[83]

While the Liberals were slow to institutionalise, the Nationals had established robust organisational underpinnings by 1914. The Nationals were able to leverage their close relationship with rural interests, along with its organisational structures, to become a competitive conservative party. However, similar to divisions of the Nationals elsewhere, the WA Nationals have been under intense pressure from demographic changes, structural change to the economy, electoral reforms and competitive pressures from the Liberals.[84] At various times, this has led to internal fracture and the existence of two separate rural parties in the state.[85]

Shifting electoral and political realities has also affected the National Party’s ties with the Liberals. There have been two key inflection points in the relationship between the conservative parties, the first of which was between 1978 and 1986, when the coalition disbanded. The second, opened up in 2006, when the Nationals abandoned the coalition to pursue a looser post-election ‘partnership’ with the Liberals, in which they sought ministries and funding commitments in exchange for supporting the Liberals in office. A third potential inflection point was triggered by the enormity of Labor’s victory at the 2021 state election. Following the election, the Nationals and Liberals agreed to a formal alliance – the first in 16 years.[86] Under the arrangement, the Liberals entered as the junior partner, with neither party bound by the policies of the other. While the alliance was fractious, and relations between the parties frequently strained, the weakened electoral position of both parties following the 2025 state election has led to the cautious resumption of talks to form a coalition.[87]

Beyond the major parties

Prior to the 1990s, the Council overwhelming favoured the election of members from the three major party groupings, and the conservative parties more particularly. Between 1911 and 1993, election of persons entirely unconnected to one of the three longstanding party groupings was a novel occurrence. However, in the eight elections held since 1993, 58 independents and non-major parties have gained election. PR-STV is credited with facilitating the election of ‘other’ electoral actors to the Council and breaking the almost exclusive monopoly held by the three oldest parties in the chamber. Seventy eight percent of independents and minor parties were elected to the Council. The most successful of the newer entrants outside of the traditional three parties has been the WA Greens, which elected its first member to the Council in 1993 and has managed to elect between one and five members of the Council at every election since.

Conclusions

WA’s formative historical experiences, its economy and its geography have made it a sometimes-disgruntled member of the federation. But WA has more in common, politically and culturally, with its counterparts than it does differences. Its grievances have been fiscal, as against identity-based, with the result that outpourings of disaffection have ebbed and flowed with prevailing economic circumstances.[88] These grievances aside, WA is an integral constitutive unit of the federation and its natural resources are central to its politics and critical to helping to power the Australian economy.

appendix: Timeline of key changes to elections in WA since 1890

1890

Creation of Legislative Assembly (LA) with four-year terms. Members of Legislative Council (LC) nominated by the governor until 1893. Plural voting with property qualification.

1893

Voting extended to male British subjects over 21 years of age. Property qualification continued. Optional enrolment.

1899

Adult suffrage. Women awarded the vote in LA.

1900

Payment of members and triennial terms.

1904

Plural voting abolished.

1907

Current Electoral Act passed. Preferential voting introduced.

1911

Full preferential voting introduced.

1919

Compulsory voting for the Assembly.

1920

Women became eligible to be MLAs.

1921

Edith Cowan elected as first woman in LA.

1922

Independent electoral distribution commissioners to determine electoral boundaries. Decisions ratified by parliament.

1936

Compulsory voting introduced for LA.

1939

First parliamentary election with compulsory voting.

1947

New distribution legislation – three commissioners, country ‘vote-weighting’ and no ratification of decisions by parliament.

1954

Ruby Hutchison elected as first woman in LC.

1962

Voluntary enrolment and voting for Indigenous peoples. LC franchise extended to include spouses, but property qualification remained. Women gained the vote in the LC.

1963–64

Adult franchise introduced for the LC with removal of the property qualification. Voting entitlements for both houses became identical. Enrolment and voting for the LC made compulsory.

1970

Voting age reduced to 18 years.

1975

Restrictions on clergymen standing for election were abolished.

1978

Reduction in number of members of either house now only by referendum.

1980

First Indigenous MP – Ernie Bridge – elected, later became first Indigenous minister.

1983

Joint enrolment procedure introduced for Commonwealth/state enrolment. Enrolment and voting became compulsory for Indigenous people. Australian citizenship became a requirement to enrol.

1987

WA Electoral Commission established. Four-year term for MPs. Multi-member regions introduced in LC to replace provinces. LC voting changed to PR-STV.

2000

Funding and disclosure law introduced. Party registration law introduced.

2005

One vote, one value. Distributions in Electoral Act.

2006

Nomination qualifications – citizenship. Overseas voting expanded. Authorisation of online advertising.

2009

Itinerant voting introduced.

2011

Fixed election dates.

2016

Federal direct enrolment and update introduced. Internet voting for a limited cohort of electors. Early voting – removal of reasons.
2021

Abolition of six LC multi-member regions and the introduction of a single state wide electorate composed of 37 members. Optional preferential voting for the LC introduced.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2025). Personal Income in Australia. Canberra: ABS. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/personal-income-australia/2022-23#state-and-territory

–– (2016). Regional population growth, Australia, 2016. Cat. No. 3218.0. Canberra: ABS. https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3218.0Main+Features12016?OpenDocument

Beeson, Mark (2016). Booms, Busts and Parochialism: Western Australia’s Implacable Political Geography. Thesis Eleven 135, no. 1, 51–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513616657885

Besant, Christopher (1990). Two nations, two destinies: a reflection on the significance of the Western Australian secessionist movement to Australia, Canada and the British Empire. University of Western Australia Law Review 209: 226–7.

Black, David (1991). Factionalism and stability, 1911–1947. In D. Black, ed. The house on the hill. Perth: WA Parliament.

Bolton, Geoffrey (2008). Land of vision and mirage: a history of Western Australia since 1826. Perth: UWA Press.

–– (1993) The civil war we never had. Proceedings of the third conference of the Samuel Griffith Society, Fremantle, 5–6 November.

Bourke, Keane and Withers, Courtney (2025). WA Nationals debate coalition with Liberal Party at state conference. ABC News, 30 August. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-30/wa-nationals-debate-coalition-with-liberals-at-state-conference/105715900

Broom, Jacob, and Narelle Miragliotta (forthcoming 2026) The Western Australian Liberal Party: From Dominance to Crisis. In Z Ghazarian, M Bonotti and M Taflaga (eds) The Australian Liberal Party: Ideas, History and Organisation, Routledge.

Burrell, Andrew (2018). Premiers urged to take back control. The Australian, 26 January.

–– (2015). Barnett’s ‘tea party’ revolt. The Australian, 13 April.

Chang, Ee Pin, Hannah McGlade, Pat Dudgeone and Jocelyn Jones (2025). Aboriginal deaths in custody in Western Australian prisons: The importance of implementing cultural safety and human rights. First Nations Health and Wellbeing-The Lowitja Journal 3, 100088.

Committee for Economic Development (CEDA) (2016). CEDA State of the Regions series: regional development in Western Australia, June 2016. Melbourne: CEDA. https://www.ceda.com.au/publications/regional-development-in-western-australia

Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) (2015). Report on GST revenue sharing relativities 2015 review – volume 1. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

Congdon, Peter (2013). In a fix: fixed-term parliaments in the Australian states. Federal Law Review 41(2): 265–98. DOI: 10.1177/0067205X1304100203

Cox, Lisa, and Karen Middleton (2024). Albanese kills off deal with Greens to pass ‘nature positive’ legislation after intervention by WA premier. The Guardian, 27 November. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/nov/27/albanese-kills-off-deal-with-greens-to-pass-nature-positive-law-after-intervention-by-wa-premier

Creyke, Robin (2012). An ‘Integrity’ branch. AIAL Forum 70: 33–37.

Curthoys, Ann, and Jane Lydon, eds. (2016). Governing Western Australian Aboriginal people: section 70 of WA’s 1889 constitution. Studies in Western Australian History 30.

Curthoys, Ann, and Jeremy Martens (2013). Serious collisions: settlers, Indigenous people, and Imperial policy in Western Australia and Natal. Journal of Australian Colonial History 15: 121–44.

de Garis, Brian (1991). The first Legislative Council. In D. Black, ed. The house on the hill. Perth: WA Parliament.

Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (2025). Western Australia economic profile (March). Perth: Government of Western Australia.

Department of Housing and Works (2025) Remote Aboriginal Communities. Government of Australia. https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-housing-and-works/remote-aboriginal-communities

Department of Energy and Economic Diversification, Government of WA (2025). Western Australia Economic Profile – October 2025. Perth: Government of WA. https://www.wa.gov.au/government/publications/western-australias-economy-and-international-trade.

Eslake, Saul (2021). The worst Australian public policy decision of the 21st century thus far – the changes to the arrangements for determining the distribution of revenue from the GST among the states and territories instituted in 2019. Canberra: Tax and Transfer Policy Institute. https://crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/2025-03/Complete%20S%20Eslake%20Policy%20Brief%202_2024.pdf

Fenna, Alan (2015a). Federalism the loser as Hickey ransoms GST to push WA reforms. The Conversation, 14 April.

–– (2015b). Best laid plans? Intentions, design, and outcomes in Australian federalism. Paper published by Constitutional Centre of Western Australia.

Fenna, Alan and Sarah Murray (2023). The Constitution of Western Australia: An Exploration. Singapore: Springer.

Fenna, Alan and John Phillimore (2025). Fiscal Equalisation in Australian Federalism: share and share alike? Australian Journal of Politics and History 71(4): 701–17.

Gallo, Lee-Maree (2011). Barnett backs away from senior WA minister’s secession call. WAtoday, 13 July. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/barnett-backs-away-from-senior-wa-ministers-secession-call-20110713-1hd2n.html

Gallop, Geoff, and Lenore Laymen (1985). Western Australia. In Brian Costar and Dennis Woodward eds. Country to National: Australian rural politics and beyond. Sydney: George Allen & Unwin.

Government of WA (2024). Diversify WA: 2024 Update. Perth: Government of WA. https://www.wa.gov.au/government/document-collections/diversify-wa-resources-and-publications

Hiller, Harry (1987). Secession in Western Australia: a continuing phenomenon? Australian Quarterly 59(2): 222. DOI: 10.2307/20635434

Horsley, Julia (2013). Conceptualising the State, Governance and Development in a Semi-Peripheral Resource Economy: The Evolution of State Agreements in Western Australia. Australian Geographer 44, no. 3: 283–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2013.817038.

Infrastructure WA (2025). WA’s regions. Perth: Government of WA. https://www.infrastructure.wa.gov.au/state-infrastructure-strategy/was-regions

Johnston, Peter (2010). Going it alone – republican states under a monarchical Commonwealth. In Sarah Murray, ed. Constitutional perspectives on an Australian republic: essays in honour of Professor George Winterton. Annandale, NSW: Federation Press.

Kelly, Paul (2010). The west is digging in against Labor. Weekend Australian, 30 October, 11.

Laschon, Eliza (2018). The GST overhaul has been given the green light – here’s what it all means for WA. ABC News, 14 November. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/gst-explainer-how-will-wa-spend-its-windfall/10493500

Lecours, André, and Daniel Béland (2018). From secessionism to regionalism: the changing nature of territorial politics in Western Australia. Regional and Federal Studies 29(1): 25–44. DOI: 10.1080/13597566.2018.1443918

Letters patent relating to the Office of Governor of the State of Western Australia (1986). 14 February.

Leyton-Flor, Samy Andres, and Kamaljit Sangha (2024). The Socio-Ecological Impacts of Mining on the Well-Being of Indigenous Australians: A Systematic Review. The Extractive Industries and Society 17, 101429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2024.101429.

Martens, Jeremy (2016). Crown land, territorial integrity and responsible government in Western Australia. Studies in Western Australian History 30: 29–41.

McNeill, Heather (2018). Scathing report finds Barnett government spent ‘large buckets of money’ on poorly planned projects. WAtoday, 20 February. https://bit.ly/2VwT7ZD

McGowan, Mark ( 2020). Temporary border closure to better protect Western Australians, 2 April. https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2020/04/Temporary-border-closure-to-better-protect-Western-Australians.aspx

McGowan, Mark and John Quiqley (2021) Electoral Equality Bill introduced into State Parliament, 15 September. https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2021/09/Electoral-Equality-Bill-introduced-into-State-Parliament.aspx

Miragliotta, Narelle (2003). Western Australia: a tale of two constitutional acts. University of Western Australia Law Review 31: 154–70.

–– (2002). Determining the result: transferring surplus votes in the Western Australian Legislative Council. Perth: Western Australian Electoral Commission.

Miragliotta, Narelle and Sharman, Campbell (2017) Managing midterm vacancies: institutional design and partisan strategy in the Australian parliament, 1901–2013. Australian Journal of Political Science 52(3): 351–66.

Miragliotta, Narelle and Finley, Watson (2024). Opposition in Western Australia. In S. Prasser and D. Clune, eds. The Art of Opposition. Redlands, QLD: Connor Court Press.

Moon, Jeremy, and Campbell Sharman (2003). Western Australia. In Jeremy Moon and Campbell Sharman, eds. Australian politics and government, 183–208. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Murray, Sarah, and James Thomson (2013). A Western Australian constitution? Documents, difficulties and dramatis personae. University of Western Australia Law Review 36(2): 1–48.

Musgrave, Thomas (2003). The Western Australian secessionist movement. Macquarie Law Journal 3: 95–129.

National Party (2021) Opposition Alliance Agreement Finalised. Press Release, 19 April: https://www.nationalswa.com/opposition-alliance-agreement-finalised/

Perpitch, Nicolas, and Eliza Laschon (2018). GST changes explained: how WA will benefit from long-wanted tax overhaul. ABC News, 5 July. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-05/gst-changes-explained-how-wa-will-benefit/9943784

Phillimore, John (2014). The Politics of Resource Development in Western Australia. In Martin Brueckner, Angela Durey, Robyn Mayes, and Christof Pforr, eds. Resource Curse or Cure? On the Sustainability of Development in Western Australia, 25–40. Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Phillimore, John, and Lance McMahon (2015). Moving beyond 100 years: the ‘WA approach’ to National Party survival. Australian Journal of Politics and History 61(1): 37–52. DOI: 10.1111/ajph.12085

Phillips, Harry (2013). Electoral law in the state of Western Australia: an overview, 3rd edn. Perth: Western Australian Electoral Commission.

Public Sector Commission (2024). The Structure of the Western Australian Government Sector. Perth: Government of Western Australia. https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/public-sector-commission/the-structure-of-the-western-australian-government-sector

Public Sector Commission (2025a). State of the WA Government Sector Workforce 2024-25. Perth: Government of Western Australia. https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/publications/tabledpapers.nsf/displaypaper/4210557c980f4d50970c449048258d0a00214b6a/$file/tp-557.pdf#page=31.11

Public Sector Commission (2025b). Agency Capability Review Program. Perth: Government of Western Australia. https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/public-sector-commission/agency-capability-review-program

Regional Services Reform Unit (2016). Resilient families, strong communities: a roadmap for regional and remote Aboriginal communities. Perth: Government of Western Australia.

Reid, G.S. (1979). Western Australia and the federation. In R. Pervan and C. Sharman, eds. Essays on Western Australian politics. Crawley, WA: UWA Press.

Roscoe, Katherine, and Barry Godfrey (2022). Postcolonial churn and the impact of the criminal justice system on Aboriginal people in Western Australia, 1829–2020. Journal of Criminology 55(4): 532–49.

Salvation Army (2025). Social Justice Stocktake: Western Australia. Sydney: Salvation Army. https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/socialjusticestocktake/wa/

Shine, Rhiannon (2021). WA Liberals and Nationals enter alliance instead of formal coalition following electoral wipeout. ABC News, 19 April. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-19/wa-liberals-and-nationals-enter-alliance-not-formal-coalition/100025454

Sharman, Campbell (1993). Secession and federalism. Proceedings of the third conference of the Samuel Griffith Society, volume 3, Fremantle, 5–6 November.

Stone, Bruce (1993). Accountability reform in Australia: the WA Inc. Royal Commission in context. Australian Quarterly 65(2), 17–30. DOI: 10.2307/20635717

Taylor, Paige (2015). Premier told to hold out on deals. The Australian, 14 April.

Thomson, James (1992). Western Australia. Public Law Review 3(1): 66–72.

Western Australian Electoral Commission (n.d.). Changes to disclosure requirements. url: https://www.elections.wa.gov.au/changes-disclosure-requirements

Wright, Shane (2025). Please sir….don’t give WA any more money. The Age, 5 November.

Zimmermann, Augusto (2011). The still reluctant state: Western Australia and the conceptual foundations of Australian federalism. In N. Aroney, G. Appleby and T. John, eds. The future of Australian federalism: comparative and inter-disciplinary perspectives. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

About the authors

Jacob Broom is a Fellow of the Indo-Pacific Research Centre and Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Murdoch University in Perth. His research examines the political economy of social provisioning in Australia, with a focus on the role of finance. His previous work on social impact bonds is published in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, New Political Economy, and Global Social Policy.

 

Narelle Miragliotta is based in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Murdoch University in Perth , where she researches and teaches in the areas of Australian political institutions and public policy. Narelle’s research interests political parties, constitutional norms, elections and electoral systems, among her other interests.

Sarah Murray is Professor of Law at the University of Western Australia. She researches in the areas of constitutional law and court innovation. She is the co-author of The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia: history, principle and interpretation (2015) and Winterton’s Australian federal constitutional law: commentary & materials (2022), and co-author of The Constitution of Western Australia – An Exploration (2023).

Susannah Nichols is a Lecturer in public policy and public sector management in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Murdoch University. She researches childhood obesity policy, the Western Australian public sector, and how reforms and new technologies like AI shape public sector capability.

Justin Harbord is the Director of Enrolment and Regulation at the Western Australian Electoral Commission. He has extensive electoral experience in the areas of operations, legislation, policy, technology, reform, communications, enrolment, education and reviews of electoral boundaries spanning more than 30 years. Justin is also one of the WA convenors of the Electoral Regulation Research Network.

  1. Updated in 2026. Jacob Broom, Narelle Miragliotta, Sarah Murray, Susannah Nichols and Justin Harbord (2026). Western Australia. In Diana Perche, Nicholas Barry, Nicholas Bromfield, Alan Fenna, Emily Foley, Zareh Ghazarian and Phoebe Hayman, eds. Australian politics and policy: 2026. Sydney: Sydney University Press. DOI: 10.30722/sup.. ↵
  2. Bolton 2008, 5. ↵
  3. Moon and Sharman 2003, 184. ↵
  4.   Curthoys and Martens 2013, 130. ↵
  5. Fenna and Murray 2023. ↵
  6.  Martens 2016. ↵
  7. The British were aware of the brutality of the colony towards Aboriginal peoples and sought to secure some protections when WA became self-governing. This came in the form of section 70, which specified: ‘There shall be payable to Her Majesty, in every year, out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund the sum of five thousand pounds mentioned in Schedule C to this Act to be appropriated to the welfare of the Aboriginal Natives…’. However, the Imperial parliament’s commitment to the survival of section 70 was weak and by 1897 the provision was radically amended. See Curthoys and Lydon 2016. The provision was controversially removed by the WA Parliament – see further, Yougarla v Western Australia (2001) 207 CLR 344; Fenna and Murray 2023, Ch 4. ↵
  8.  Martens 2016, 41. ↵
  9.  Musgrave 2003. ↵
  10.  Musgrave 2003. ↵
  11.  Quoted in Taylor 2015, 2. Fenna and Murray 2023, Ch 2. ↵
  12.  Besant 1990. ↵
  13.  Bolton 1993. ↵
  14.  Besant 1990. ↵
  15.  Over the years, secessionist calls have emerged from several quarters. In the 1970s, mining magnate Lang Hancock bankrolled the Westralian Secession Movement. In 2016, the Western Australia Party was established to represent WA’s interest in Canberra , however the party stresses it is not a secessionist party  (https://westernaustraliaparty.org.au/)  In 2021, WAxit was registered for the state election, with the stated goal of achieving independence before the state’s bicentenary in 2029 (https://www.waxit.org/) ↵
  16. This was not the first of such calls in recent times. In 2011, Norman Moore, then state minister for the regions, proposed that ‘WA should give some thought to going it alone’ (Gallo 2011). ↵
  17. Burrell 2015. ↵
  18. McGowan 2020. ↵
  19. Reid 1979; Zimmerman 2011. ↵
  20. Bolton 1993; Sharman 1993. ↵
  21. Hiller 1987; Sharman 1993. ↵
  22. ABS 2016. ↵
  23. To put this into context, the Perth metro area has a 6000 km2 footprint within which live just under 2 million people, compared to the Goldfields-Esperance region which has a population of 53,914, situated across a 950,000 km2 area. Infrastructure Australia, 2025. ↵
  24. Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (Trade Profile) 2025. ↵
  25. Concerns about neglect of the regions led to the Royalties for Regions scheme in 2008. The scheme was the result of a political bargain struck between the Nationals and the Barnett Liberal government following the 2008 state election. Under the agreement, the Barnett government agreed to transfer 25 per cent of all royalty payments to the state for reinvestment into regional WA. The McGowan Labor government, elected in 2017, has retained the program but capped annual spending at billion. The McGowan government’s announcement followed the conclusion of a special inquiry into the program which criticised it for operating outside of the state’s budget and destabilising WA’s finances (McNeill 2018). ↵
  26. CEDA 2016, 24. ↵
  27. It was also attributed to longstanding tendencies towards ‘government driven development’, the high point of which was the infamous ‘WA Inc.’ affair when the secretive and procedurally suspect commercial activities of the Burke Labor government (1983–86) led to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of WA taxpayers’ money. In its aftermath, the Richard Court government embarked on reform of state utilities and government practices, ostensibly to disrupt the longstanding public policy paradigm (Stone 1993). ↵
  28.  CGC 2025 WA State Snapshot , 1. ↵
  29. Moon and Sharman 2003, 203–4. ↵
  30. As one member of the then WA parliament  opined: ‘Our only connection with the other colonies is by the intervening stormy sea, and the distance from Albany to Adelaide is the same, some 1150 miles … We shall be situated at such a distance from the seat of Government that I do not think we can expect that consideration for our wants and requests which we would be entitled to’ (Parker quoted in Bolton 1993). ↵
  31. Wright 2025. ↵
  32. Fenna 2015b. ↵
  33. Burrell 2018. It is important to note that WA’s constitutions, as with all of the original states, retained their constitutional status post-Federation with sections 106–108 preserving state constitutions, parliamentary powers and enactments, subject to the dictates of the Commonwealth Constitution. However, several High Court judgments, in expanding the scope of the national government’s policy competency, have largely eroded the sphere of the states’ activities. ↵
  34. Phillimore 2014. ↵
  35. Horsley 2013. ↵
  36. WA Economic Profile October 2025, 20. ↵
  37. Phillimore 2014. ↵
  38. WA Economic Profile October 2025, 18. ↵
  39. Beeson 2016, 57. ↵
  40. Horsley 2013. ↵
  41. Diversify WA 2024. ↵
  42. WA Economic Profile October 2025, 15. ↵
  43. Eslake 2021. Fenna and Phillimore 2025. ↵
  44. Cox and Middleton 2024. ↵
  45. Beeson 2016. ↵
  46. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2025. ↵
  47. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2025. ↵
  48. WA Economic Profile October 2025, 23. ↵
  49. WA Economic Profile October 2025, 22. ↵
  50. Salvation Army 2025. For further reading on the relationship between First Nations land rights and wellbeing and mining interests, see Leyton-Flor and Sangha 2024. ↵
  51. Murray and Thomson 2013, 22. ↵
  52. While there are differing explanations for this departure from consolidating the amendments, it is likely that it avoided the possible activation of the provision in the CA 1889 which potentially required an absolute majority in both the Assembly and Council, rather than a simple majority, for some amendments to the text of the CA 1889. For more, see Miragliotta 2003, 157; Murray and Thomson 2013, 27–8. ↵
  53. Fenna and Murray 2023. ↵
  54. Chang et al. 2025, see also Roscoe and Godfrey 2022. ↵
  55. ‘Letters patent’ 1986. ↵
  56. CA, section 2(1).  See also Australia Acts 1986 (Cth and UK), section 2(1). ↵
  57. These include intergovernmental immunity (Spence v Queensland (2019) 268 CLR 355) and the implied freedom of political communication (Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1997) 189 CLR 520; McCloy v New South Wales (2015) 257 CLR 178). ↵
  58.  Johnston 2010, 101. ↵
  59.  Creyke 2012, 37. ↵
  60. Public Sector Commission 2024. ↵
  61. Public Sector Commission 2025a, 6. ↵
  62. Public Sector Commission 2024. ↵
  63. Public Sector Commission 2025a, 6. ↵
  64. Public Sector Commission 2024. ↵
  65. Public Sector Commission 2024. ↵
  66. Public Sector Commission 2024. ↵
  67. Public Sector Commission 2025a, 8. ↵
  68. WA Government 2025, n.p. ↵
  69. Public Sector Commission, 2025b. ↵
  70. Phillips 2013, 3–5. ↵
  71. Constitutionally, however, such a change to the law required absolute majorities of both houses and a referendum. To get around these provisions, legislation was introduced that provided that, for conjoint elections, there were set dates when the writs were to be issued. This achieved the desired outcome without extinguishing the governor’s entitlement to prorogue or dissolve parliament (Congdon 2013). ↵
  72. Phillips 2013. ↵
  73.  The original form of PR-STV used the ‘inclusive Gregory method’ to transfer unused ballot papers, or a portion thereof, won by elected candidates. This was amended to the ‘weighted-inclusive Gregory method’ in order to address an anomaly where a transferred ballot paper could potentially increase in value to more than one vote (Miragliotta 2002). ↵
  74. Phillips 2013. ↵
  75. Group ticket voting refers to the practice whereby each party group ranks all listed candidates on the ballot paper in order of their preferred election. Electors who vote above the line on the ballot paper (i.e., vote by party grouping) effectively endorse the full list of preferences lodged by that group (Miragliotta and Sharman 2017). ↵
  76. McGowan and Quigley 2021. ↵
  77. Preference deals are agreements that involves party groups ranking certain competitors’ candidates favourably on their group ticket vote in exchange for them doing the same. In doing so, this better allows party votes to flow to certain candidates that would otherwise be difficult to guarantee if each voter personally awarded all of their preferences. ↵
  78. Western Australian Electoral Commission (n.d.) ↵
  79. de Garis 1991. ↵
  80. Black 1991. ↵
  81. Miragliotta and Watson 2024. ↵
  82. The Council outcome in 2021 was particularly momentous for Labor as it was the first time that it has achieved a majority in that chamber. ↵
  83. Broom and Miragliotta, forthcoming. ↵
  84. Moon and Sharman 2003. ↵
  85. Gallop and Layman 1985. ↵
  86.  Interestingly, the Liberals sought to restore the coalition but the Nationals resisted, preferring independence. (Shine 2021). ↵
  87. Bourke and Withers 2025. ↵
  88. Lecours and Béland 2018. ↵

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Australian Politics and Policy Copyright © 2026 by Sydney University Press and individual authors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book