2008 Western Australian state election

The 2008 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 6 September 2008 to elect 59 members to the Legislative Assembly and 36 members to the Legislative Council. The incumbent centre-left Labor Party government, in power since the 2001 election and led since 25 January 2006 by Premier Alan Carpenter, was defeated by the centre-right Liberal Party opposition, led by Opposition Leader Colin Barnett since 6 August 2008.

2008 Western Australian state election
6 September 2008 (2008-09-06)
All 59 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
and all 36 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Council
30 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Colin Barnett Alan Carpenter Brendon Grylls
Party Liberal Labor National
Alliance Coalition Coalition
Leader since 6 August 2008 (2008-08-06) 25 January 2006 (2006-01-25) 21 June 2005 (2005-06-21)
Leader's seat Cottesloe Willagee Central Wheatbelt
Last election 18 seats 32 seats 5 seats
Seats won 24 28 4
Seat change 6 4 1
First preference vote 418,208 390,339 53,086
Percentage 38.39% 35.84% 4.87%
Swing 2.76 6.05 1.18
TPP 51.85% 48.15%
TPP swing 4.13 4.13
The map on the left shows the first party preference by electorate. The map on the right shows the final two-party preferred vote result by electorate.
Premier before election

Alan Carpenter
Labor

 Resulting Premier

Colin Barnett
Liberal

The election resulted in a hung parliament with no party gaining a majority. Labor was two seats short of a majority in the expanded legislature. Ultimately, the Liberals were able to form a coalition government with the WA Nationals, supported by three independents. While both parties agreed to National demands that at least 25 percent of mining proceeds go to regional projects, the Nationals ultimately went with the Liberals. According to Nationals leader Brendon Grylls, a Labor-National coalition would have required Green support to get mining legislation passed in the Legislative Council. The coalition agreement gave National Party ministers "the right to exempt [themselves] from Cabinet and vote against an issue on the floor of the Parliament if it's against the wishes of the people [they] represent", an explicit rejection of the pattern of former non-Labor coalition agreements under which the Nationals had been seen as virtual co-owners of Liberal policies.

The election was the first to be held since a major electoral redistribution was implemented in 2007. This redistribution involved significant changes to the geographic distribution of parliamentary seats and regions in Western Australia, and brought the state into line with the rest of Australia in adopting one vote one value for the lower house.

The election was called earlier than expected by Alan Carpenter, who requested the Governor to dissolve parliament on 7 August 2008.

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