The Liberals have so far picked up Nedlands and Carine, but have to pick up target seats including Bateman, South Perth and Scarborough.
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The result also brings the Liberals back from the political wilderness, where the party has been wandering for the past four years after losing 11 seats in 2021’s election bloodbath.
With a strengthened presence in the lower house the conservative party will be able to mount a proper attack on Labor at the 2029 election.
How did we get here?
The 2021 result was so catastrophic for the WA Liberals its impact will still be felt at the next election.
Labor secured 53 of 59 seats at that election, which was widely considered to have been a result of voter support for former premier Mark McGowan’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The result decimated the Liberal party and made it impossible to mount an effective fightback with a depleted volunteer base and weakness in parliament.
Their prospects increased slightly with the shock retirement of McGowan in May 2023, and the subsequent ascension of Cook to the leadership gave the Liberals a sniff of hope in that they wouldn’t have to face the most popular premier in history again.
Come campaign time, the Liberals had honed their message to focus on four key areas – cost of living, crime, housing and health.
Labor went broader with its pitch to voters, which at some points was used against them.
The street race circuit and ferry expansion idea, coupled with leaks from the NRL about the WA government’s willingness to pay hundreds of millions to bring a team to WA, gave the Liberals plenty of ammunition to attack the government over its priorities.
Mettam’s campaign also suffered with candidate controversies like Darran Spackman, who resigned from the party after a car crash media interview where he was being grilled about a Facebook post he made in 2023.
She was also grilled consistently over the safety of her leadership and Basil Zempilas after she defeated a challenge driven by polling facilitated by Zempilas’ campaign manager in November last year.
The federal Liberals will be keenly dissecting tonight’s result – confirming to them that the curse of McGowan may not have lifted from the state less than two months from their own election.
