State election 2021: Premier Mark McGowan and Labor’s triumph inflicts generational wipe-out of WA Liberals

West Australians are this morning taking stock of the monumental changes to the State’s political landscape after Mark McGowan last night led Labor to an election triumph that inflicted generational wipe-out on the WA Liberals. Labor is ahead in 53 of 59 seats and now commands the largest majority ever recorded in the Lower House, with the Liberals potentially reduced to just two. Only a handful of Lower House seats are still in doubt, including Carine, Churchlands, Nedlands, North-West Central and Warren-Blackwood. While the Nationals were ahead in Warren-Blackwood in early counting, Labor was leading in the other four. Counting will continue for Upper House votes today, so it may take several days before the results are definitively confirmed in Lower House seats. The tsunami of support for the Premier swept deep into blue-ribbon territory, with Labor picking up electorates once considered safe Liberal seats, including South Perth and Bateman. “It was a complete and utter landslide,” ABC election analyst Antony Green said on the Insiders program this morning. Mr Green said while it was rare for any major political party to win 50 per cent of first preferences, WA Labor had achieved an “astonishing” 58 per cent. The Liberals, who polled their lowest primary vote ever with just over 31 per cent of first preferences at the last election four years ago, yesterday plunged to 21 per cent. Liberal leader Zak Kirkup was tossed out of his Dawesville seat, with David Honey (Cottesloe) and Libby Mettam (Vasse) potentially the only Liberal survivors. Last night Mr Kirkup said it was a difficult loss to bear but one he took full responsibility for. The bloodbath raises the prospect of the Liberals losing their status as the official State Opposition to the Mia Davies-led Nationals, which is predicted to win four seats. Ms Davies said decisions about whether the Nationals would form an alliance or coalition with the decimated Liberals would start when the counting stopped.