Mark McGowan’s landslide election triumph has been hailed as Labor’s greatest ever victory in WA.

Labor secured dramatic swings while the Liberals’ primary vote collapsed and several ministers were bundled out of parliament. You can relive the blow-by-blow account of the night on our Live Blog.

Colin Barnett, who was deposed after more than eight years in the top job, said his government’s long tenure was the biggest factor in the huge defeat, which underscored the “brutal, harsh business of politics”.

Play Video Colin Barnett concedes defeat. The West Australian Video Colin Barnett concedes defeat.

Labor enjoyed a night of unbridled jubilation at the sheer magnitude of its victory.

To the strains of AC/DC’s TNT, McGowan, set to be sworn in as the State’s 30th premier, was given the rock star treatment when he entered the Gary Holland Community Centre in Rockingham at about 9.20pm.

Flanked by his wife Sarah and three children, an ebullient Mr McGowan thanked WA voters, who he said had voted for “hope and opportunity” and spoke of his love for the State.

Camera Icon State Election - Labor leader Mark McGowan function at Gary Holland Centre, Rockingham. Picture: Daniel Wilkins\The Sunday Times

“Can I say this: Western Australia is truly a wonderful State.

“I love this place ... It has done more for me than I can ever repay ... I came here 27 years ago in my Corolla across the Nullarbor and today the people of WA made me Premier. Thank you.”

It had been Sarah who had encouraged Mr McGowan to keep going after he was well beaten in the 2013 election.

“She told me after 2013 ‘You can win’,” Mr McGowan reflected.

They kissed in front of the crowd, as he told Sarah he loved her.

Camera Icon State Election - Labor leader Mark McGowan function at Gary Holland Centre, Rockingham. Picture: Daniel Wilkins\The Sunday Times

For the people of WA, he said: “I won’t let you down. We will govern for everyone.”

And in a clear dig at One Nation he said: “Today, West Australians voted for hope and opportunity over desperation and division.

“Today, we showed we are a State of decency and intelligence. Not a State of stupidity and ignorance.”

He acknowledged “with success comes responsibility” and he promised to deliver good government and follow through on promises to create jobs, build Metronet and not privatise Western Power.

Mr McGowan thanked a long list of people who had helped him, including his support team and his staff.

“Can I particularly thank the people who came from over east to help and I want to mention a few ... can I thank Bob Hawke.

“I achieved one of my life time ambitions in this campaign, I had a beer with Bob Hawke.

“Can I thank Bill Shorten, who came over three times during the course of the campaign, and can I thank former premier Geoff Gallop who came from Sydney to help as well.

“And can I also acknowledge someone who didn’t come from far away, but my friend and mentor Kim Beazley, a great West Australian.

“Without Kim, I wouldn’t be standing here tonight.”

Play Video Carey claims the Liberal's deal with One Nation helped in his favour. The West Australian Video Carey claims the Liberal's deal with One Nation helped in his favour.

Mr McGowan and Labor will hold a commanding majority in the Legislative Assembly with The West Australian predicting Labor will hold at least 35 seats, with another four, including Joondalup, Kalamunda, Kingsley and Murray Wellington, still too close to call.

The Labor Party swept up seats across the metropolitan area, and have dramatically changed the state’s electoral pendulum.

Victories for Labor candidates in Balcatta, Belmont, Bicton, Burns Beach, Darling Range, Forrestfield, Morley, Mount Lawley, Perth, Southern River, Swan Hills and Wanneroo came after double digit swings against sitting Liberal MPs.

In Bunbury, Labor candidate and former South West Development Commissioner chief executive Don Punch beat Liberal candidate Ian Morison with a swing of 23.3 per cent.

The Liberals are currently winning just 11 seats, after several ministers were defeated as part of the mammoth swing against the Barnett Government. The Nationals are expected to hold at least five seats.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation had a disappointing night, recording just 4.6 per cent of the primary vote.

The Greens recorded a small increase on their 2013 result with 8.6 per cent of the vote. The National Party was slightly down, but held key seats. </s> WA election: New era for Labor as Mark McGowan elected Premier in landslide

WA Premier-elect Mark McGowan has vowed to get to work immediately on implementing his ambitious platform, after Labor was swept into office in a landslide that claimed the scalps of at least four Liberal ministers.

Mr McGowan ended eight-and-a-half years in opposition for Labor, inflicting a powerful defeat on Colin Barnett's Government and the Liberal Party.

Labor needed to win 10 additional seats to form government — but it picked up at least 18 and may take as many as 21, and has secured a sizeable parliamentary majority.

The 16 per cent swing against the Liberals saw at least four ministers lose their seats.

The ABC's projections show ministers John Day, Andrea Mitchell, Paul Miles and Albert Jacob all fell on a disastrous night for the Liberals.

Liberal leadership aspirant Joe Francis and Nationals leader Brendon Grylls are facing nervous waits to find out if their parliamentary careers are over, while Agriculture Minister Mark Lewis may have lost his Upper House spot.

Former Liberal ministers Tony Simpson and Murray Cowper and Legislative Assembly speaker Michael Sutherland were among the other casualties.

The party's night was perhaps encapsulated in a single tweet by Barnett Government minister and Liberal powerbroker Peter Collier at 9:10pm as the result crystallised.

If the current projected results eventuate, there will just be three women in the Liberal partyroom — Liza Harvey, Libby Mettam and Donna Farragher.

The size of Labor's gains exceeded even the party's most optimistic assessments, with its victories over Mr Cowper in Murray-Wellington and Ms Mitchell in Kingsley considered shock results.

Labor is expected to hold between 38 and 41 seats in the 59-seat Legislative Assembly.

But Labor's control is likely to be much weaker in the Upper House, where One Nation and a handful of other micro parties have a chance of getting elected.

One Nation's primary vote of just 4.7 per cent in the Lower House was far worse than the party had been hoping, but it fared slightly better in the Upper House - where it could still win one or two seats.

Mr McGowan used his victory speech to reaffirm several of his key election commitments, including the delivery of Labor's multi-billion-dollar Metronet public transport system.

"We will get to work immediately on carrying out our plans.

"You deserve good government and, with my team, I am committed to delivering just that."



The remarkable thing in this result is the collapse of the Liberal vote.

 

The National Party has struggled in Kalgoorlie and Pilbara, which are the two mining districts, but their halted vote has held up quite comfortably in all the other areas where the Nationals contested.

 

It's the Liberal Party vote that suffered.

 

[The] collapse in their first-preference vote … hasn't gone to One Nation, a lot of it's gone straight to Labor.

Labor set itself an ambitious series of campaign goals, including completing the first stage of Metronet within six years while bringing the budget back to surplus by 2019-20.

Mr McGowan also used his speech to pay tribute to the union movement for its assistance during the campaign.

The new government is likely to have to deal with a fractured Upper House, with One Nation, Fluoride Free WA and the Liberal Democrats currently projected by the ABC to pick up one seat each, and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers forecast to win two seats.

The Liberal post-mortem examination has already commenced following the party's disastrous result, but the outgoing Premier said he would not be drawn into determining where it all went wrong.

He said his party ran a "great campaign", saying time was the main factor in the result.

Attention will quickly turn to who will lead the Liberals in opposition, with Mr Francis declaring he wants the job but facing an uncertain parliamentary future.

Liza Harvey and Dean Nalder are seen as the other strongest contenders. </s> Mark McGowan has declared victory in Western Australia as record-breaking swings put the Labor party on track to double its representatives in state parliament.

Swings of up to 20% were recorded in outer-suburban seats in Perth, while swings of more than 11% were recorded in 14 previously Liberal-held seats – securing a Labor 34 seats in the 59-seat parliament.

The number of seats declared for Labor was expected to increase to 41 as counting continued, more than double the number the party previously held.

It took just over an hour for pundits to declare the election, with the outgoing premier, Colin Barnett, conceding defeat by 8.30pm local time, just two and a half hours after the polls closed.

The federal Liberal party frontbencher Michael Keenan, speaking on ABC24, labelled it a “savage result”.

The Liberal party’s primary vote dropped 16.1% across the state. The Barnett government ministers Albert Jacob, John Day and Andrea Mitchell lost their seats, despite sitting on healthy margins, along with a host of other senior Liberal figures including the Speaker, Michael Sutherland.

Addressing an elated crowd at the Rockingham community centre at 9pm, McGowan, flanked by his wife, Sarah, and their three children, said WA had voted for “hope and opportunity over desperation and division”.



“Today we showed we are a state of decency and intelligence, not a state of stupidity and ignorance,” he said.

McGowan said Labor had “shown the way for the rest of the country”.

“The core Australian values of equality, fairness, merit and opportunity shone through in this election campaign,” he said. “They are West Australian values, and they are Labor’s values.”

Labor campaigned on a platform of opposing the controversial Perth Freight Link and the proposed sale of 51% of Western Power, and promised to reduce the state’s mounting debt – which is tipped to reach $41bn by 2020 – by diversifying the state’s economy and curbing spending.

It has also promised to build a $2.5bn urban rail project, dubbed Metronet, and to invest in social policies.

McGowan was elected to parliament in 1996 and became opposition leader in 2012. He moved to Western Australian in 1988 as a legal officer in the Australian navy, stationed in Rockingham.

“I love this place,” he said. “It’s done more for me than I can ever repay. I came here 27 years ago in my Corolla across the Nullarbor, and today the people of Western Australia have made me premier. Thank you.”

He also acknowledged Barnett’s contribution to the state and thanked him for “his many years of public service”.

A clearly emotional Barnett told Liberal party faithful in a concession speech at Cottesloe that they had run “a great campaign” but had faced a difficult task in convincing the public to give them a third term.



“To me, the overwhelming factor was time,” he said. “And it is a phenomena I guess, particularly in Australian politics, that the electorate, the voters, only give a government, a people, a certain amount of time.”

The Barnett government, which was in a loose coalition with the National party of WA, had governed for eight and a half years, during a turbulent period in which Australia had five prime ministers.

“When we won the election in 2008 and I became the state’s 29th premier, I made some commitments,” Barnett said. “Some to myself and some I made publicly. The one I made to myself was that I would give it my best shot. Maybe that wasn’t good enough but, I assure you, I have given it my best shot in every sense.”

Earlier on Saturday Barnett refused to comment on whether a preference deal with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party had turned voters away from the Liberal party.

Hanson, whose party appeared on track on Saturday night to pick up one upper house seat, said it was clear that voters were sick of Barnett. She suggested Barnett’s unpopularity had hurt One Nation’s vote, which was tracking at 4.5% – about half the level of support predicted in the polls.

The National party of WA, which was predicted to take a double hit from both One Nation and industry backlash from its proposed mining tax, gained ground in some regional seats while others swung towards Labor. The party leader, Brendon Grylls, said on Saturday night that his seat was too close to call. </s> The Liberal party is set to form government in South Australia after 16 years of Labor government, with former federal senator Nick Xenophon failing to make a splash in the state with his SA Best party.



And Labor has come out on top in a bitterly-fought by-election against the Greens in the inner Melbourne seat of Batman.



In South Australia, Liberal leader Steven Marshall will be the new premier, with a projected Liberal victory bringing to an end to 16 years of Labor government in the state.

The ABC has projected the Liberals will win at least 25 seats, one more than the 24 needed to secure a majority government.

South Australian Labor leader Jay Weatherill said on Saturday night he had called Marshall to concede and wished him all the best in taking on the role of premier.

"I am sorry I could not bring home another victory," he told supporters. "I do feel like one of those horses who has won four Melbourne Cups and I think the handicap has caught up to us on this occasion."

Weatherill said being premier had been one of the "great joys" of his life and, smiling, promised his family that he'd be a better husband, son, brother and father.

"We’ll just give you one pledge – we’ll be back," he said. </s> Labor's Mark McGowan is on track to be the state's new premier, according to results from Newspoll and ReachTEL.

Labor needs a swing of 10 per cent to win the extra 10 seats required to end Colin Barnett's eight-year reign as WA Premier.

A ReachTEL poll of 2500 voters has Labor's primary vote at 40.3 per cent, compared to the Liberal-National primary vote at 32.7 per cent.

It gives Labor a commanding 54 per cent to 46 per cent lead on a two party preferred basis, winning an additional 14 seats after an 11 per cent swing.

Newspoll also has Labor ahead of the Liberal-Nationals by the same margin on a two-party basis.

Mr Barnett, 66, on Friday launched a last-gasp pitch for votes, saying his government has much more to give.

'There's a lot more to be done; exciting times to be had - don't lose your nerve now,' he said.

'With Mark McGowan as premier Perth will become dull.'

Mr McGowan told reporters on election eve winning the extra 10 seats would be akin to 'climbing Mt Everest'.

He remains the state's preferred premier over Mr Barnett by a margin of 45 per cent to 37 per cent, according to Newspoll.

Support for Pauline Hanson's One Nation looks to have plummeted in the wake of five senators either being dumped or quitting, and a controversial preference-swap deal with the Liberals.

One Nation's primary vote has dropped from 13 per cent to 8 per cent in just six weeks.

Across the state, almost 1.6 million people have enrolled to vote for more than 700 candidates from 16 parties.

More than 180,000 early votes and 167,500 postal vote applications had been received by Friday morning. </s> Labor’s Mark McGowan makes his celebration speech to a jubilant crowd in Rockingham on Saturday after winning a stunning victory in the Western Australia election. Labor has picked up at least 14 new seats in the lower house, securing a win which McGowan says marks the victory of “hope and opportunity over desperation and division”
• Western Australian election: ABC says Labor on track to win with 33 seats – live </s> Good evening! In just over an hour, we will start to see the first results filter in from the Western Australian state election.

The latest Newspoll, published this morning, has Labor leading 54 to 46 in two-party-preferred terms, which would see the Liberal and National parties lose their grip on government after nine years in office and put Labor’s Mark McGowan, who this morning had to be prompted by a media aid to remember if he had any hobbies, in the top job.

McGowan, who has been opposition leader since 2012, the member for Rockingham since 1996, was minister for the South West in the Gallop government, and once won an award for bravery for pulling a man out of a burning car, has been ahead in the polls almost since the 2012 election.

He will need to secure at least a 10% swing toward Labor to get the 10 seats needed to secure a majority in the lower house. Exit polls are reportedly showing a 12% swing.

The message of the final days of the campaign has been that voters are tired of the premier, Colin Barnett, who is now Australia’s longest-serving leader, and also that voters are punishing the Liberal party for a preference deal with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.



The seats to keep an eye on as the results filter through tonight are the inner-city seats of Perth, Mt Lawley and Bicton, held by the Liberal party on margins of 2.6%, 8.9% and 10% respectively, and the outer suburban seats of Southern River and Wanneroo, all of which could go to Labor.

Bunbury, in the state’s south-west, is likely to go because John Castrilli (a lovely man and the first politician I ever interviewed as a cadet journo, incidentally) is retiring, and senior Barnett government figures Joe Francis and Mike Nahan are also in trouble in their electorates of Riverton and Jandakot, which both won easily on inflated margins in the 2012 election.

Finally, keep an eye up north at Pilbara, the seat held by the Nationals WA leader, Brendon Grylls. Grylls has a strong personal vote, but it is a traditionally Labor-held seat and a statewide swing, combined with a targeted campaign by the mining industry against his proposed mining tax, could see it gone too.

Grab some snacks, we could be here for a while. </s> Labor is headed for a landslide victory in the WA election with exit polls showing an almost 12 per cent swing in its favour.

The opposition, led by Mark McGowan, needed only a 10 per cent swing to claim the nine extra seats to form government and oust Premier Colin Barnett after 8.5 years.

Results don't look as promising for One Nation, despite a big push by leader Pauline Hanson who campaigned hard in the state for a week before the poll.

Its primary vote slumped to six per cent, down from the nine it averaged during the campaign, making it unlikely to claim a single seat.

It is a crushing disappointment after Senator Hanson predicted her party would win five seats - two in the lower house and three in the upper house.

The Channel Nine/Galaxy poll taken of voters as they left the ballot polls has the swing at 11.8 per cent to Labor, which could net them 17 new seats for a total of 38.

To form a majority government, Labor will need at least 30 of the parliament's 59 seats. It had 21 after the 2013 election to the Coalition's 38.

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has already called the election for his party, congratulating Mr McGowan via Twitter.

'Congratulations to Mark McGowan & WA Labor on a huge victory!' he wrote.

ABC's election tracker already predicts Labor will claim 35 seats to the Coalition's 24, with 19 seats in doubt, with just 30 per cent of the vote counted.

According to the exit poll, Labor will pick up 54.5 per cent of the vote on a two-party preferred basis, while the Liberals will have just 45.5 per cent.

On primary votes, the ALP is on 41 up 7.9 per cent from the 2013 election, while the Liberal party has slumped 14.1 per cent to 33.

The ReachTEL and Newspoll published on Saturday morning had Labor ahead 54-46 on two party preferred basis.

Election Day was marred by dirty tricks, with voters spammed with text messages warning them not to vote for Labor and fake flyers for a mosque development handed out.

The texts read 'FACT: Household bills will go up under a Labor Government. Mark McGowan is not worth the risk.'

Meanwhile, letterboxes in Perth's northern suburbs were stuffed with fake flyers proposing the construction of a fictitious mosque in the area.

The flyers were knocked up to look like real City of Stirling development proposal notices about an application by the Islamic Council of WA.

Senator Hanson denied involvement, saying it was not her style or that of One Nation.

'I'm upfront with people, I always have been, so we don't go out putting these sort of leaflets out to people,' she told the ABC.

'I don't believe in fearmongering, that's something you'd expect of the Labor party or the other political parties, that's not One Nation.' </s> Bill Shorten is entering election day bullish about claiming a historic election victory for the Labor Party.

The opposition leader is expected to launch a blitz of seats in the key battleground of Victoria as the clock ticks down on polls closing on Saturday evening.

The final Newspoll of the campaign has Labor ahead of the coalition 51.5 to 48.5 on a two-party preferred basis.

"I'm confident Labor will win tomorrow because we've got a positive plan for real change, to stop the chaos," Bill Shorten told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.

He also criticised Scott Morrison for raising the prospect of a minority coalition government.

"A prime minister who says vote for him and he'll give you a minority government and three more years of chaos - that's not what Australia needs at this time in our history."

Labor is on track to record a narrow victory, making Mr Shorten the fourth party leader to win government from opposition since World War II.

Mr Shorten spent Friday paying tribute to Labor legend Bob Hawke, who died on Thursday, aged 89.

He shared a beer with Labor Premier Daniel Andrews and one of his predecessors Steve Bracks.

The final day of campaigning was tinged with sadness, with electioneering pared back as a mark of respect for Mr Hawke.

Mr Shorten said Mr Hawke was an inspiration before he became a friend.

"It's sad to me that I can't show him that we can win and form a government because I'd feel I'd be fulfilling a contract that I mentally made with him all those years ago," he said.

Labor is hopeful of making inroads in Melbourne after thrashing the Liberals at last year's state election.

With the election on a knife's edge, the size of the swing in Victoria could be crucial in deciding who will be prime minister after Saturday. </s> Liberal leader Steven Marshall has claimed victory in the South Australian election, declaring it a new dawn for the state after 16 years of a Labor government.

Mr Marshall will take over from Labor's Jay Weatherill as premier with the Liberals likely to win at least 24 seats, enough to govern in their own right.

"It's been way too long between drinks for the Liberal Party in South Australia," a jubilant Mr Marshall, who fell short of winning the 2014 election, told the cheering crowd.

"Now, we have been given a wonderful opportunity by the people of South Australia."

He acknowledged Mr Weatherill, who shortly before had called him to concede defeat.

"I would like to thank him for his service, to the people of South Australia, and for his six years as premier of this state," he said.

"It is a tough job but I tell you what, I'm really looking forward to it.

"A massive thank you to the people of South Australia who have put their trust, their faith in me and the Liberal team for a new dawn, a new dawn for South Australia."

He also thanked the voters for giving them a majority in the parliament.

"We specifically asked them to give us a majority government because we know that a majority government will be able to drive the reform agenda that we so desperately need here in South Australia," he said.

"I absolutely guarantee, I give you my commitment that I and every single person in the team will be working diligently every day over the next four years so that we can build a brighter future, a better future for South Australia."

The big losers were Nick Xenophon and his SA-BEST candidates who look unlikely to win a single lower-house seat.

Mr Xenophon was beaten in Hartley by sitting Liberal Vincent Tarzia who was given a hero's welcome when he arrived at the function.

Mr Marshall applauded Mr Tarzia's efforts in fending off the unexpected incursion of Mr Xenophon.

"I think most people at that point in time would have thought, this is not going to happen, I'm going to throw in the towel. Did he throw in the towel? No way! He redoubled his efforts and they have been rewarded."

Mr Marshall also thanked former prime minister John Howard, who supported and mentored him after the 2014 loss.
After eight years in power, the Liberal Party is defeated by the Labor Party in a landslide election. Mark McGowan is set to become the Australian state's new Premier.