Guest essay by Eric Worrall
If you alienate your base, don’t expect them to be right for you. Australian Green Conservative leader Zak Kirkup even lost his own seat after walking on a platform that was building the country’s largest jobs, renewable energy and export projects and promising to stop coal mining.
WA election: McGowan government wins second term in Labor landslide as “disaster” hits Liberals
By Rhiannon Shine
Posted at 8:53 pm yesterday, updated 7 minutes ago
Labor won the West Australian state elections and Mark McGowan returned for a second term as Prime Minister in what has been called a “disaster” for the WA Liberal Party.
Important points:
- The election was scheduled less than 45 minutes after the election for Labor was over
- Liberal leader Zak Kirkup has lost his seat in large swings towards Labor
- WA nationals are expected to have more seats in the House of Commons than Liberals
On a disastrous night for the Liberals, Chairman Zak Kirkup became the first major party leader in Washington to lose his seat in 88 years. He lost his own seat in Dawesville and said he took full responsibility for the party’s electoral eradication.
At this point in time, WA nationals will have more seats in the next state parliament than the Liberal Party.
Nationals will have at least four seats in Parliament, while Liberals will not be able to exceed that number after losing quite a number of seats in the metropolis of Perth.
Labor won a quick and overwhelming election victory as the first numbers showed massive swings towards Labor across the state.
Less than 45 minutes after the polls were closed, ABC chief electoral analyst Antony Green said the opposition could not win enough seats to form a government given that the opposition would require a turn in their favor.
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Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-13/wa-election-winner-called-in-state-election-2021-by-antony-green/13243662
What caused such a massive upswing against the conservatives?
The victorious center of the West Australian Labor Party spends money on climate change initiatives, but they don’t scare voters with wild promises or massive political pivots. When the EPA chief of Western Australia came up with a surprise carbon offsetting requirement for heavy industry in 2019, West Australian Labor leader Mark McGowan persuaded the EPA to back out.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of McGowan’s green policies. But an overwhelming majority of Western Australian voters believe he’s doing a good job.
In addition, it is widely believed that the McGowan government protected the state from Covid-19. Western Australia’s Covid lockdowns were among the most aggressive in Australia. People credit the McGowan administration’s aggressive lockdown and border closure for keeping Covid-19 out of Western Australia and quickly containing any outbreaks that have occurred.
Given McGowan’s popularity, there was likely no conservative path to victory on this occasion. But Zak Kirkup’s attempt to leave the center left the McGowan administration an absolute disaster in terms of climate policy. Even in Australia, where voting is compulsory, people who normally vote conservatively took the opportunity at the booth to express their anger at a joking opposition leader who was leading their party in a direction they did not recognize.
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