Perth Voice Interactive

VOICELAND remains a strip of red following the March 8 election and Labor’s second-best return, with the Opposition unable to win back key seats such as Mt Lawley.

In Perth Labor’s John Carey secured the seat for third time in a row, having first won it back in 2017.

This time around he secured the seat with 10,847 votes; a result that didn’t come as much of a surprise to most as Labor has only lost the seat twice since 1962, both times to the Liberals.

It was also the Greens’ second-best performing electorate across the state.

Labor secured Mt Lawley via Frank Paolino who was preceded by Simon Millman who announced his decision to head back into law mid-term.

Mr Paolino secured the electorate with 9,839 votes. 

Liberal candidate Michelle Sutherland put an 11.6 per cent dent in Mr Paolino’s margin, but it wasn’t enough to win back what was once a relatively safe seat for the party which held it consecutively from 1962-1986 before the electorate was dissolved for the 1989 election. 

It wouldn’t be formed again until 2008 when the Liberals won it again before losing it in 2017.

In Maylands Dan Bull pulled in another win for Labor with 11,204 votes. 

Like Mr Paolino, this was his first election after picking up the reins from Lisa Baker who was the member for Maylands since 2008. 

Not an all-too surprising result considering it’s a relatively safe Labor seat, being held consecutively since 1968. 

In fact there have only been four elections since 1950, including a by-election, where Labor hasn’t won the seat. 

Maylands was also the Greens’ best performance, with Caroline Perks securing more primary votes than the Liberals’ Paula Tan, although on preferences the Blues slipped slightly ahead.

It wasn’t a great outing for the Australian Christians who didn’t put a candidate up in Perth, but in both Maylands and Mount Lawley were out-gunned by informal votes.

While this was an improvement for the party, it’s a far cry from the 4 per cent of the total first preference votes required to get any form of electoral funding from the WA Electoral Commission to cover its expenses.

Despite numerous headlines One Nation didn’t have much impact either, their one candidate in Mt Lawley also failing to outscore the informals.

by COOPER MENZIES