2001 Western Australian state election

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 10 February 2001 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council. The two-term Liberal–National coalition government, led by Premier Richard Court, was defeated by the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Dr Geoff Gallop, in a landslide.

2001 Western Australian state election

← 1996 10 February 2001 (2001-02-10) 2005 →
All 57 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly and all 36 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Council 29 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   LFF Leader Geoff Gallop Richard Court Janet Woollard Party Labor Liberal/National coalition Liberals for Forests Leader since 8 October 1996 (1996-10-08) 12 May 1992 (1992-05-12) 3 July 1999 Leader's seat Victoria Park Nedlands Alfred Cove (won seat) Last election 19 seats 35 seats — Seats won 32 21 1 Seat change 13 14 New Popular vote 382,308 353,377 16,790 Percentage 37.24% 34.42% 1.64% Swing 1.42 11.14 New TPP 52.92% 47.08% TPP swing 8.09 8.09
Premier before election Richard Court Liberal/National coalition Elected Premier Geoff Gallop Labor

The election produced the biggest change of seats at any election since 1911, with Labor winning 14 seats from the Coalition as well as an Independent-held seat, while losing the seat of Kalgoorlie for the first time since 1923 to Liberal candidate Matt Birney. Meanwhile, a minister in the outgoing Government, Doug Shave, lost his seat of Alfred Cove to Independent candidate Dr Janet Woollard, who was also a member of the Liberals for Forests party.

This was the first election in Western Australian history where the Australian Greens Party overtook the National Party in its share of the state vote.

Results

Legislative Assembly

See also: Results of the 2001 Western Australian state election (Legislative Assembly)

Western Australian state election, 10 February 2001[1][2] Legislative Assembly << 1996–2005 >>
Enrolled voters		1,187,629
Votes cast		1,075,556		Turnout	90.56%	+0.57%
Informal votes		48,836		Informal	4.54%	+0.15%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	382,308	37.24%	+1.42%	32	+13
	Liberal	319,927	31.16%	–8.61%	16	–13
	One Nation	98,321	9.58%	+9.58%	0	± 0
	Greens	74,641	7.27%	+2.54%	0	± 0
	National	33,450	3.26%	–2.53%	5	– 1
	Democrats	27,102	2.64%	–2.44%	0	± 0
	Liberals for Forests	16,790	1.64%	+1.64%	1	+1
	Christian Democrats	9,893	0.96%	+0.78%	0	± 0
	Curtin Labor Alliance	4,120	0.40%	+0.40%	0	± 0
	Seniors Party	3,022	0.29%	+0.29%	0	± 0
	Independent[1]	55,589	5.41%	–2.42%	3	± 0
	Non-affiliated	1,557	0.15%	-0.75%	0	± 0
Total		1,026,720			57
Two-party-preferred
	Labor	538,759	52.92%	+8.09%
	Liberal/National	479,209	47.08%	–8.09%

Notes:

¹ At the 1996 election, Labor Party member Larry Graham won the Pilbara seat. He resigned from the party during the term of parliament, and won his seat as an independent in 2001. The retirement of Labor independent Ernie Bridge, whose seat of Kimberley was subsequently won at the election by Labor candidate Carol Martin.

Legislative Council

See also: Results of the 2001 Western Australian state election (Legislative Council)

Western Australian state election, 10 February 2001 Legislative Council
Enrolled voters		1,187,629
Votes cast		1,077,186		Turnout	90.70%	+0.56%
Informal votes		28,434		Informal	2.64%	–0.37%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	397,846	37.94%	+6.88%	13	+ 1
	Liberal	356,126	33.96%	N/A[1]	12	– 2
	National	25,204	2.40%	N/A[1]	1	– 2
	One Nation	103,571	9.88%	+9.88%	3	+ 3
	Greens	83,883	8.00%	+2.45%	5	+ 2
	Democrats	38,968	3.72%	–2.86%	0	– 2
	Christian Democrats	16,105	1.54%	+0.86%	0	± 0
	Curtin Labor Alliance	8,985	0.86%	+0.86%	0	± 0
	Seniors Party	954	0.09%	+0.09%	0	± 0
	Other parties	180	0.02%	–3.83%	0	± 0
	Independent	16,930	1.61%	–2.91%	0	± 0
Total		1,048,752			34

Notes:

¹ At the 1996 election, the Liberals and Nationals ran a combined ticket in two regions, ran separately in a third, and the Liberals ran alone in the remaining three. The two parties received a combined vote of 46.45%. As such, the swing against the Coalition in the Legislative Council was 10.09%.

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-2001				Swing	Post-2001
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Albany		Liberal	Kevin Prince	11.9	15.6	3.7	Peter Watson	Labor
Alfred Cove		Liberal	Doug Shave	2.4	9.8	7.4	Janet Woollard	Liberals for Forests
Ballajura		Liberal	Rhonda Parker	0.1	5.1	5.0	John D'Orazio	Labor
Bunbury		Liberal	Ian Osborne	5.3	6.8	1.5	Tony Dean	Labor
Collie		National	Hilda Turnbull	9.3	9.4	0.1	Mick Murray	Labor
Geraldton		Liberal	Bob Bloffwitch	7.0	11.3	4.3	Shane Hill	Labor
Innaloo		Liberal	George Strickland	4.0	8.5	4.5	John Quigley	Labor
Joondalup		Liberal	Chris Baker	5.5	6.3	0.8	Tony O'Gorman	Labor
Kalgoorlie		Labor	Megan Anwyl	4.4	5.5	1.1	Matt Birney	Liberal
Kimberley		Independent	Ernie Bridge	11.5	22.0	10.5	Carol Martin	Labor
Mandurah		Liberal	Roger Nicholls	3.0	7.9	4.9	David Templeman	Labor
Pilbara		Labor	Larry Graham	15.7	34.9	19.2	Larry Graham	Independent
Riverton		Liberal	Graham Kierath	6.7	9.7	3.0	Tony McRae	Labor
Roleystone		Liberal	Fred Tubby	7.2	12.1	4.9	Martin Whitely	Labor
Southern River		Liberal	Monica Holmes	1.5	4.9	3.4	Paul Andrews	Labor
Swan Hills		Liberal	June van de Klashorst	9.7	11.7	2.0	Jaye Radisich	Labor
Wanneroo		Liberal	Iain MacLean	1.6	7.5	5.9	Dianne Guise	Labor
Yokine		Liberal	Kim Hames	3.2	6.6	3.4	Bob Kucera	Labor

• Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

Post-election pendulum

Labor seats (32)
Marginal
Collie	Mick Murray	ALP	0.1%
Joondalup	Tony O'Gorman	ALP	0.8%
Bunbury	Tony Dean	ALP	1.5%
Swan Hills	Jaye Radisich	ALP	2.0%
Riverton	Tony McRae	ALP	3.0%
Southern River	Paul Andrews	ALP	3.4%
Yokine	Bob Kucera	ALP	3.4%
Albany	Peter Watson	ALP	3.7%
Geraldton	Shane Hill	ALP	4.3%
Innaloo	John Quigley	ALP	4.5%
Mandurah	David Templeman	ALP	4.9%
Roleystone	Martin Whitely	ALP	4.9%
Ballajura	John D'Orazio	ALP	5.0%
Wanneroo	Dianne Guise	ALP	5.9%
Fairly safe
Armadale	Alannah MacTiernan	ALP	7.1% v IND
Eyre	John Bowler	ALP	7.9%
Safe
Thornlie	Sheila McHale	ALP	10.4%
Kimberley	Carol Martin	ALP	10.5%
Perth	John Hyde	ALP	11.3%
Midland	Michelle Roberts	ALP	13.5%
Victoria Park	Geoff Gallop	ALP	13.8%
Maylands	Judy Edwards	ALP	14.5%
Belmont	Eric Ripper	ALP	14.7%
Burrup	Fred Riebeling	ALP	15.0%
Rockingham	Mark McGowan	ALP	15.6%
Willagee	Alan Carpenter	ALP	15.7%
Peel	Norm Marlborough	ALP	16.5%
Fremantle	Jim McGinty	ALP	17.2%
Nollamara	John Kobelke	ALP	17.3%
Cockburn	Fran Logan	ALP	18.3%
Girrawheen	Margaret Quirk	ALP	18.4%
Bassendean	Clive Brown	ALP	19.1%

Liberal/National seats (21)
Marginal
Darling Range	John Day	LIB	0.3%
Hillarys	Rob Johnson	LIB	1.0%
Kalgoorlie	Matt Birney	LIB	1.1%
Ningaloo	Rod Sweetman	LIB	2.4%
Kingsley	Cheryl Edwardes	LIB	2.9%
Dawesville	Arthur Marshall	LIB	2.9%
Murray-Wellington	John Bradshaw	LIB	3.0%
Avon	Max Trenorden	NAT	4.8%
Nedlands	Richard Court	LIB	4.9% v IND
Vasse	Bernie Masters	LIB	5.5%
Wagin	Terry Waldron	NAT	5.9% v LIB
Fairly safe
Murdoch	Mike Board	LIB	6.6%
Mitchell	Dan Sullivan	LIB	8.2%
Greenough	Jamie Edwards	LIB	9.4%
Safe
Carine	Katie Hodson-Thomas	LIB	10.0%
Cottesloe	Colin Barnett	LIB	11.3%
Stirling	Monty House	NAT	12.4%
Warren-Blackwood	Paul Omodei	LIB	14.4%
Moore	Bill McNee	LIB	15.1%
Roe	Ross Ainsworth	NAT	21.7%
Merredin	Hendy Cowan	NAT	22.9%
Crossbench seats (4)
Alfred Cove	Janet Woollard	LFF	7.4% v LIB
South Perth	Phillip Pendal	IND	12.8% v LIB
Churchlands	Liz Constable	IND	19.2% v LIB
Pilbara	Larry Graham	IND	19.2% v ALP

See also

• Candidates of the 2001 Western Australian state election
• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1996–2001
• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 2001–2005

References

1. Antony Green (June 2001). "Western Australian State Election 2001" (PDF). Western Australian Parliamentary Library. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
2. "Western Australian State Election 2001" (PDF). Parliament of Western Australia. 23 January 2024.