# 2013 Western Australian state election

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 incumbent Liberal–National Coalition government, led by Premier Colin Barnett, won a second consecutive four-year term in government, defeating the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Mark McGowan, in a landslide. The Liberals alone won a majority of seats in the Legislative Assembly for the first time since the election of 1996, retaining government with 31 seats. Labor won 21 seats and the Nationals won 7 seats. In the Legislative Council, the Liberals won 17 of the 36 seats.

## Results
### Legislative Assembly

Western Australian state election, 9 March 2013 Legislative Assembly
<< 2008–2017 >> :
| Enrolled voters | Enrolled voters | 1,412,533 | | | | |
| Votes cast | Votes cast | 1,260,089 | | Turnout | 89.21% | +2.73% |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | 75,657 | | Informal | 6.00% | +0.68% |
| Summary of votes by party |||||||
| Party | Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change |
| | Liberal | 557,903 | 47.10 | +8.71 | 31 | +7 |
| | Labor | 392,448 | 33.13 | –2.70 | 21 | –7 |
| | Greens | 99,431 | 8.39 | –3.52 | 0 | ±0 |
| | National | 71,694 | 6.05 | +1.18 | 7 | +3 |
| | Christians | 21,451 | 1.81 | –0.77 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Family First | 7,039 | 0.59 | –1.35 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Independents | 34,466 | 2.91 | –1.44 | 0 | –3 |
| Total | Total | 1,184,432 | | | 59 | |
| Two-party-preferred |||||||
| | Liberal | 678,231 | 57.29% | +5.44% | | |
| | Labor | 505,650 | 42.71% | –5.44% | | |

### Legislative Council

Western Australian state election, 9 March 2013 Legislative Council :
| Enrolled voters | Enrolled voters | 1,412,533 | | | | |
| Votes cast | Votes cast | 1,260,929 | | Turnout | 89.27% | +2.72% |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | 35,706 | | Informal | 2.83% | +0.00% |
| Summary of votes by party |||||||
| Party | Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change |
| | Liberal | 583,500 | 47.62 | +8.02 | 17 | +1 |
| | Labor | 398,260 | 32.51 | –3.63 | 11 | ± 0 |
| | Greens | 100,624 | 8.21 | –2.87 | 2 | –2 |
| | National | 59,804 | 4.88 | –0.44 | 5 | ± 0 |
| | Christians | 23,877 | 1.95 | –0.37 | 0 | ± 0 |
| | Shooters and Fishers | 21,765 | 1.78 | New | 1 | +1 |
| | Family First | 16,760 | 1.37 | –1.15 | 0 | ± 0 |
| | Independent | 20,633 | 1.68 | +0.21 | 0 | ± 0 |
| Total | Total | 1,225,223 | | | 36 | |

## Summary of Assembly results

Popular vote
Liberal
47.10%
Labor
33.13%
Greens
8.40%
National
6.05%
Others
5.32% :
% of the seats won
Liberal
52.54%
Labor
35.59%
National
11.86% :

## Seats changing parties

| Seat | Pre-2013 | Pre-2013 | Pre-2013 | Pre-2013 | Swing | Post-2013 | Post-2013 | Post-2013 | Post-2013 |
| Seat | Party | Party | Member | Margin | Swing | Margin | Member | Party | Party |
| Alfred Cove | | Independent Liberal | Janet Woollard | 0.2* | N/A | 23.6** | Dean Nalder | Liberal | |
| Balcatta | | Labor | John Kobelke | 2.2 | 9.5 | 7.3 | Chris Hatton | Liberal | |
| Belmont | | Labor | Eric Ripper | 6.7 | 7.6 | 0.9 | Glenys Godfrey | Liberal | |
| Churchlands | | Independent | Liz Constable | 23.5** | N/A | 20.2** | Sean L'Estrange | Liberal | |
| Forrestfield | | Labor | Andrew Waddell | 0.2 | 2.3 | 2.1 | Nathan Morton | Liberal | |
| Fremantle | | Independent | Adele Carles | 4.0** | N/A | 7.9* | Simone McGurk | Labor | |
| Joondalup | | Labor | Tony O'Gorman | 3.3 | 7.8 | 4.5 | Jan Norberger | Liberal | |
| Kalgoorlie | | Independent | John Bowler | 3.6*** | N/A | 6.3* | Wendy Duncan | National | |
| Morley | | Labor | notional | 0.8 | 5.5 | 4.7 | Ian Britza | Liberal | |
| Perth | | Labor | John Hyde | 7.7 | 10.3 | 2.6 | Eleni Evangel | Liberal | |
| Pilbara | | Labor | Tom Stephens | 7.2 | 18.7 | 11.5 | Brendon Grylls | National | |
* 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 off Labor at the 2009 by-election, Vince Catania in the seat of North West defected from Labor to the Nationals in July 2009, and Fremantle MP Adele Carles 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 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 MLA (Balcatta)
* Carol Martin MLA (Kimberley)
* Eric Ripper MLA (Belmont)
* Tom Stephens MLA (Pilbara)
* Martin Whitely 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)

### Liberal

* Norman Moore MLC (Mining and Pastoral Region)

### National

* Grant Woodhams MLA (Moore)

### Independent

* John Bowler MLA (Kalgoorlie)
* Liz Constable MLA (Churchlands)

## 2008 pendulum

The following Mackerras pendulum works by lining up all of the seats according to the percentage point margin post-election on a two-candidate-preferred 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 in May 2010.

## Polling

Newspoll 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 is ±3 percent.

### Approval ratings
## Newspaper endorsements

| Newspaper | Endorsement |
| The Australian | Liberal |
| The Australian Financial Review | Behind paywall |
| The West Australian | Liberal |