Labor Retains Former Western Australian Premier’s Seat, Despite Losses to Primary Vote

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (second left) is seen walking with WA Premier Roger Cook (left), former WA Premier Mark McGowan, and Labor candidate for Rockingham Magenta Marshall (right) during a walk around Rockingham centre in Rockingham, south of Perth, Australia, on July 8, 2023. (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)

The West Australia Labor Party has held onto former Premier Mark McGowan’s seat of Rockingham in the first electoral test for the Cook government.

Even though there was a 23 percent swing against her, Magenta Marshall, 28, will be the new member for Rockingham. She secured just shy of 50 percent of the vote.

In the 2021 election, Mr. McGowan won the seat with a landslide 82.75 percent primary vote.

Despite the massive swing against it, Labor will still comfortably retains the seat with a 65.2 percent two-party preferred vote.

Ms. Marshall also received significantly more votes than the other candidates, including the Liberal Party’s 21-year-old Peter Hudson, who polled 17.7 percent of the vote; and former Labor member and now independent Hayley Edwards, who received 16 percent.

“I’m honoured to be elected as the new member for Rockingham! I'll always stand up for our community,” Ms. Marshall wrote on Facebook.

Ahead of the voting, Premier Roger Cook admitted it would be a tough election.

“We’ve run a strong campaign, a campaign which talks about the issues that matter most to people—jobs, cost of living, education rates, sporting facilities, great communities,” he said at the polling booth, reported ABC.

“Magenta has been out there every day, making sure she talks to people about the issues that matter most to them.

“But it will be tight, it will be tough.”

Mr. Cook added that the election came at a “difficult” time and Labor would not take the results for granted.

Ms. Marshall agreed with the premier’s words, noting that she didn’t expect to receive as much support as Mr. McGowan.

“Labor’s always delivered for Rockingham, and I’m excited that if I’m elected, I'll be able to continue that as a strong local voice,” she said.

Meanwhile, Rockingham’s Liberal candidate Mr. Hudson said that community sentiment towards the state government was gradually changing.

“People want change, people are sick of the Cook government,” he said at the polling booth.

He said that top of mind for Rockingham residents was leadership on cost of living, the quality of local investment, and Labor’s updates to Aboriginal heritage laws.

“They are sick of their arrogance and their ignorance on a range of issues, whether it be cost of living, [the] broken hospital system, out-of-control crime, the shambolic implementation of the Cultural Heritage Act.”

The state’s Labor party holds an overwhelming majority in Parliament after its landslide 2021 election victory. In the lower house, Labor holds 53 of the 59 seats. Meanwhile, Nationals hold four seats and the Liberals hold two.

Plummeting Popularity

It comes as new polling shows the popularity of the West Australia Labor government has plunged after wildly popular Mr. McGowan’s sudden resignation in May.

According to the latest polling conducted by market researcher Utting July 18 to 20, the state’s Liberal party now has a 54 percent to 46 percent lead in the two-party preferred voted.

Utting’s polling conducted just after Mr. McGowan stepped down had Labor ahead at 61 to 39.

Many Western Australians have become increasingly anxious about the state’s updated Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, which has already seen advocacy groups on Indigenous issues make million-dollar demands on councils over issues like reforestation.

The Act was designed to protect culturally significant landmarks in the state from potential harm and was updated following the destruction of the Indigenous heritage site Juukan Gorge by mining giant Rio Tinto. It established the Local Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Services (LACHS), which is responsible for ensuring that areas of significance are not harmed.

Yet farmers, landowners, and councils are now worried that due to the expansive nature of the new laws, they may be easily caught up in red tape or face heavy penalties.

Under the system, a landowner with over 1,100 square metres of land (11,840.3 square feet) must first apply with LACHS if they wish to carry out work that could disturb over 50 centimetres of soil—encompassing activities like land clearing, drainage work, and even building a fence. LACHS will then send out a consultant—at the landowner’s expense of around $160 (US$108) per hour—to determine if the site has any cultural significance.

Around 30,000 people signed a petition calling on the West Australian government to delay the rollout of the state’s Indigenous heritage protection laws just days prior to the implementation on July 1.

Victoria Kelly-Clark contributed to this report.