What's happening in Western Australia this federal election?

The Federal Election is now just over a week away, on Saturday 3 May. Mark your calendar!

In the lead-up, The Daily Aus will break down the tightest races in each state and territory.

In this piece, we’ll focus on Western Australia – home to nearly 3 million people who decisively swung the election in 2022.

Background

Let’s first take a step back. This election, you’re voting for who you want to represent your:

Local area in the House of Representatives.
State or territory in the Senate.

For this piece, we’re going to focus on the House of Representatives, because that’s the house that determines which party will be in government.

Across the country, there are 150 seats up for grabs in the House of Representatives. West Aus has 16 of those seats.

Marginal seats

Elections are normally won and lost in marginal seats.

These are the seats where the leaders spend most of their time on the campaign trails, because voters in these areas tend to switch their party allegiance from election to election.

In this piece, we are breaking down five of the closest contests across Western Australia.

A quick note: In each seat there are multiple candidates, but we have focused on the top contenders based on current polling.

Curtin

Curtin is home to some of the wealthiest suburbs in Perth, such as City Beach, Scarborough, and Cottesloe.

Ex-Foreign Minister Julie Bishop held the seat of Curtin for 21 years. Kate Chaney, the niece of former Liberal Minister Fred Chaney, won as an independent in 2022, campaigning on climate, gender, and integrity.

This is considered one of the key seats the Liberals need to win to get into government.

Moore

Moore comprises Perth’s northern suburbs of Joondalup, Kingsley, and Hillarys.

Liberal MP Ian Goodenough was defeated by former MP Vince Connelly in a preselection challenge for the seat.

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Goodenough is running as an Independent this election.

Meantime, Labor is hoping to flip this seat.

Bullwinkel

Bullwinkel is a new seat in WA, thanks to a redistribution of electorates by the AEC. It covers Perth’s outer-eastern suburbs. It’s shaping up as a three-cornered contest between Labor, Liberal, and National parties.

Based on the voting of the population in this area at the last election, Labor is the party to beat in this
electorate.

Pearce

Pearce is the northern-most metropolitan Perth seat, taking in some semi-regional areas. The main suburbs are Wanneroo, Butler, and Kinross. Labor won the seat in 2022, after being held by former Liberal Minister Christian Porter for nearly a decade.

Huge swings against Labor in these Perth suburbs at the March state election have given Liberal strategists more confidence they could flip it back.

Tangey

Tangney is based south of the Swan and Canning rivers in metropolitan Perth, taking in the suburbs of Bicton, Winthrop, Mount Pleasant, and Canning Vale.

Labor had not held Tangeny since 1983 under former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

The Liberal Party is running Howard Ong, an IT business entrepreneur, to try to win back Tangney.