2008 Western Australian state election information
Australian state election
2008 Western Australian state election
← 2005
6 September 2008 (2008-09-06)
2013 →
All 59 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly and all 36 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Council 30 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
First party
Second party
Third party
Leader
Alan Carpenter
Colin Barnett
Brendon Grylls
Party
Labor
Liberal
National
Alliance
Coalition
Coalition
Leader since
25 January 2006 (2006-01-25)
6 August 2008 (2008-08-06)
21 June 2005 (2005-06-21)
Leader's seat
Willagee
Cottesloe
Central Wheatbelt
Last election
32 seats
18 seats
5 seats
Seats won
28
24
4
Seat change
4
6
1
First preference vote
390,339
418,208
53,086
Percentage
35.84%
38.39%
4.87%
Swing
6.05
2.76
1.18
TPP
51.85%
48.15%
TPP swing
4.13
4.13
The map on the left shows the first party preference by electorate. The map on the right shows the final two-party preferred vote result by electorate.
Premier before election
Alan Carpenter
Labor
Resulting Premier
Colin Barnett
Liberal
The 2008 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 6 September 2008 to elect 59 members to the Legislative Assembly and 36 members to the Legislative Council. The incumbent centre-left Labor Party government, in power since the 2001 election and led since 25 January 2006 by Premier Alan Carpenter, was defeated by the centre-right Liberal Party opposition, led by Opposition Leader Colin Barnett since 6 August 2008.
The election resulted in a hung parliament with no party gaining a majority. Labor was two seats short of a majority in the expanded legislature. Ultimately, the Liberals were able to form a coalition government with the WA Nationals, supported by three independents. While both parties agreed to National demands that at least 25 percent of mining proceeds go to regional projects, the Nationals ultimately went with the Liberals. According to Nationals leader Brendon Grylls, a Labor-National coalition would have required Green support to get mining legislation passed in the Legislative Council. The coalition agreement gave National Party ministers "the right to exempt [themselves] from Cabinet and vote against an issue on the floor of the Parliament if it's against the wishes of the people [they] represent",[1] an explicit rejection of the pattern of former non-Labor coalition agreements under which the Nationals had been seen as virtual co-owners of Liberal policies.
The election was the first to be held since a major electoral redistribution was implemented in 2007. This redistribution involved significant changes to the geographic distribution of parliamentary seats and regions in Western Australia, and brought the state into line with the rest of Australia in adopting one vote one value for the lower house.
The election was called earlier than expected by Alan Carpenter, who requested the Governor to dissolve parliament on 7 August 2008.[2]
^ABC Online (14 September 2008). "Nationals hand WA election win to the Liberals". Retrieved 14 September 2008.
^"WA voters go to polls on September 6". The Age. Australia. 7 August 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2008.
and 23 Related for: 2008 Western Australian state election information
the candidates that stood at the 2008WesternAustralianstateelection. The following MPs did not contest the election. Kim Chance, MLC for Agricultural...
The 2013 WesternAustralianstateelection was held on Saturday 9 March 2013 to elect 59 members to the Legislative Assembly and 36 members to the Legislative...
2005–2008 Candidates of the 2005 WesternAustralianstateelection "Parliament of WesternAustralia, Assembly election". University of WesternAustralia....
Elections in Australia take place periodically to elect the legislature of the Commonwealth of Australia, as well as for each Australianstate and territory...
The WesternAustralian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of WesternAustralia, an Australianstate. The...
Australia, Victoria, WesternAustralia, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. As of 2023, Tasmania is the only state or territory where...
The WesternAustralian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of WesternAustralia, a state of Australia. It is regarded as a house of...
altered. Petitions asking for representative elections for some of the positions in the WesternAustralian Legislative Council were presented to London...
Newman. This ended after the 2008WesternAustralianstateelection, when Colin Barnett became Premier of that state. At the state level, the Liberals have...
The Centenary Election, St Lucia, UQP (2002). "WesternAustralia". The Australian Public Intellectual Network. Retrieved 10 September 2008.{{cite web}}:...
The 2010 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010 to elect members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left...
The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on Saturday 7 September 2013. The centre-right...
until his retirement in 2023. He was the leader of the WesternAustralian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2012 to 2023 and a member of the...
leadership election for the WesternAustralian Labor Party occurred on 6 June 2023 following the resignation of party leader and premier of WesternAustralia Mark...
The 2005 WesternAustralianstateelection was held on 26 February 2005. Clive Brown MLA (Bassendean) John Cowdell MLC (South West) Kevin Leahy MLC (Mining...
James Stirling in WesternAustralia. London: Oxford University Press. p. 24. WesternAustralian Year Book (PDF). Perth: Australian Bureau of Statistics...
Coalition) would form government at a state or territory level after an election until the 2008WesternAustralianstateelection. Also, this is the last time...
WesternAustralia (WA) is divided into regions according to a number of systems. The most common system is the division of the state by the Government...
The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a confederation of green state and territory political parties in Australia. As...
The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the...