The 2013 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 9 March 2013 to elect 59 members to the Legislative Assembly and 36 members to the Legislative Council. The

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

won a majority of seats in the Legislative Assembly for the first time since the election of 1996, retaining government with 31 seats. The Labor Party won 21 seats and the National Party won 7 seats. In the Legislative Council, the Liberals won 17 of the 36 seats.

Results

Legislative Assembly

Legislative Council

Summary of Assembly results

Seats changing parties

* Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election. * * figure is vs. Liberal * ** figure is vs. Labor * *** figure is vs. National

Background

At previous elections, the government was able to choose the date of an election, but on 3 November 2011, the government introduced fixed four-year terms, with elections being held every four years on the second Saturday in March. This was the first election under the new system.

Key dates

* Issue of writ: 6 February * Nominations open: 7 February * Close of party nominations: 12 noon, 14 February * Close of rolls: 6 pm, 14 February * Close of independent nominations: 12 noon, 15 February * Postal voting commences: ? * Pre-poll voting commences: 20 February * Polling day: 9 March * Return of writ: On or before 6 May

Seats held

Lower house

At the 2008 election, Labor won 28 seats, the Liberals won 24 seats, the Nationals won four seats, with three seats won by independents. Three changes have occurred since; the Greens won the seat of

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

off Labor at the 2009 by-election, Vince Catania in the seat of

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

defected from Labor to the Nationals in July 2009, and Fremantle MP

Adele Carles Adele Simone Carles (born 19 February 1968) is a former Australian politician. She was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 2009 to 2013, representing the electorate of Fremantle. She was initially elected as a Greens W ...

resigned from the Greens in 2010, leaving Labor with 26 seats, the Liberals with 24 seats, the Nationals with five seats, while independents hold four seats. Boundary changes took effect at this election. The only changes to the notional 2008 results were that the seat of

Morley Morley may refer to: Places England * Morley, Norfolk, a civil parish * Morley, Derbyshire, a civil parish * Morley, Cheshire, a village * Morley, County Durham, a village * Morley, West Yorkshire, a suburban town of Leeds and civil parish * M ...

shifted from Liberal to Labor and the seat of North West (renamed North West Central) shifted from Labor to National.

Upper house

At the 2008 election, the Liberals won 16 seats, Labor won 11 seats, the Nationals won five seats, and the Greens won four seats.

Retiring MPs

Labor

John Kobelke John Charles Kobelke (30 June 1949 – 23 June 2019) was an Australian politician. He was an ALP member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1989 to 2013. Until the defeat of the Carpenter government in 2008, Kobelke was variou ...

MLA ( Balcatta) * Carol Martin MLA ( Kimberley) *

Eric Ripper Eric Stephen Ripper (born 13 September 1951) is a retired Australian politician. From 2008 to 2012 he was Leader of the Opposition and leader of the Labor Party in Western Australia. He grew up on a wheat/sheep farm near Nyabing. Ripper late ...

MLA ( Belmont) *

Tom Stephens Thomas Gregory Stephens (born 15 November 1951 in Sydney, New South Wales Australia) is a former Australian parliamentarian. Early life and career Youngest son to John Joseph and Ellen Genevieve Stephens six children; five sons and one daugh ...

MLA (

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

) *

Martin Whitely Martin Paul Whitely (born 19 October 1959 in Perth, Western Australia, is a mental health researcher, author and was a Labor member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, ...

MLA ( Bassendean) * Helen Bullock MLC ( Mining and Pastoral Region) * Ed Dermer MLC ( North Metropolitan Region) * Jon Ford MLC (Mining and Pastoral Region) * Linda Savage MLC (

East Metropolitan Region The East Metropolitan Region is a multi-member electoral region of the Western Australian Legislative Council, located in the eastern and south-eastern suburbs of Perth. It was created by the ''Acts Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 1987'', and b ...

)

Liberal

* Norman Moore MLC (Mining and Pastoral Region)

National

Grant Woodhams Grant Allen Woodhams (born 7 August 1952 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian former politician. He was The Nationals member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from February 2005 to March 2013. Arriving in Western Austra ...

MLA (

Moore Moore may refer to: People * Moore (surname) ** List of people with surname Moore * Moore Crosthwaite (1907–1989), a British diplomat and ambassador * Moore Disney (1765–1846), a senior officer in the British Army * Moore Powell (died c. 1573 ...

)

Independent

* John Bowler MLA (

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

) *

Liz Constable Elizabeth Constable (born 2 December 1943) is a former Independent member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, firstly representing the seat of Floreat after winning it at a 1991 by-election following the resignation of Andrew Mens ...

MLA ( Churchlands)

2008 pendulum

The following

Mackerras pendulum The Mackerras pendulum was devised by the Australian psephologist Malcolm Mackerras as a way of predicting the outcome of an election contested between two major parties in a Westminster style lower house legislature such as the Australian House ...

works by lining up all of the seats according to the

percentage point A percentage point or percent point is the unit (measurement), unit for the Difference (mathematics), arithmetic difference between two percentages. For example, moving up from 40 percent to 44 percent is an increase of 4 percentage points, but a ...

margin post-election on a

two-candidate-preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

basis. :1.Elected as Labor member, defected to the Nationals in July 2009, margin is ALP v NAT. :2.Elected as Green member, resigned from

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties * Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *G ...

in May 2010.

Polling

Newspoll Newspoll is an Australian opinion polling brand, published by ''The Australian'' and administered by international market research and data analytics group, YouGov. Newspoll has a long tradition of predicting Australian Federal Election resul ...

polling is conducted via random telephone number selection in city and country areas. Sampling sizes consist of around 1,100 electors. The declared

margin of error The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of a census of the ent ...

is ±3 percent.

Newspaper endorsements

References

External links

2013 Western Australian Election Preview: Antony Green ABC

Western Australian Electoral Commission

Antony Green's Election Blog - Western Australia Elections and Politics
{{Western Australian elections Elections in Western Australia 2013 elections in Australia 2010s in Western Australia March 2013 events in Australia