WA’s state election was held five and half weeks ago, and you’d forgiven for forgetting that not all the results were known in the Legislative Assembly until this afternoon.
The determination of the final allocation of votes in the state’s upper house was scheduled to be announced last Friday, but was delayed until today.
As expected The Greens secured four seats giving them the balance of power in the chamber with Labor only holding 16 seats and losing their majority. The Liberal party will have 10 seats, Legalise Cannabis will hold a single seat, as will the Australian Christians.
The final count saw One Nation return to the parliament with two seats, and in a shock announcement Amanda Dorn from the Animal Justice Party has been elected to the parliament.
It will be the first time the party has had representation in the Western Australian parliament. The party’s first MP in Australia was Mark Pearson who was elected to the New South Wales parliament in 2015. In 2019 Emma Hurst was elected to the NSW Legislative Council.
Andy Meddick served in the Victorian parliament from 2018 until 2022. At the 2022 state election Georgie Purcell was elected to the Victorian parliament.
Dr Brad Pettit has been elected by his colleagues as the leader of The Greens. After being the party’s lone member in last term of government he’ll be joined by Tim Clifford, Sophie McNeill and Jess Beckerling.
Dr Pettit said his team were eager to get to work.
“On March 8 the people of Western Australia made it clear they want to see urgent action to tackle the climate crisis, protect our forests and oceans and provide genuine relief for the 700,000 renters in this state.
“Over the last four years Labor has squandered the incredible opportunity handed to them at the 2021 election, and we’ve seen the climate, biodiversity and housing crises worsen as a direct result of their inaction. Western Australians are sick of it and they have asked for change.
“As a team, we’re keen to work with Labor from day one to get stronger action on climate change, nature protection, housing affordability and renter’s rights.”
For Tim Clifford, who returns to the parliament, housing is the top issues on his mind.
“Everyone deserves a roof over their heads, and a safe place to call home. Whether renting or buying, our housing system should prioritise people over profit yet over the last four years the Cook Labor government have presided over the worst housing crisis in WA history.” Clifford said.
“We need bold, urgent and evidence-based action to ensure every Western Australian has a secure and affordable place to call home; over the last 8 years WA has gone backwards on almost every housing metric, we can’t tinker around the edges any longer.”
Independent MP Sophia Moermond is out of the parliament
When Legalise Cannabis MP Sophia Moemond spoke at Kellie-Jay Keen’s Let Women Speak rally on the steps of the Western Australian parliament in 2023 she said she was likely committing “political suicide”.
Within months of the first term MP outlining her opposition to legally recognising people who are transgender she’d parted ways with her party and moved to be an independent. It was later revealed that party members had voted to push Moermond down to an unwinnable spot on the ticket for the 2025 election.
Pivoting away from cannabis Moermond’s focus shifted to a campaign against people who are transgender, and she put her voice behind Albany group Keeping Children Safe who campaigned against library books, role playing games and twerking.
This afternoon Moermond spoke about the end of her time in parliament, describing the result as “a bit of a shame”.
“Unfortunately I didn’t make it in and that’s a bit of shame.” Moermond said thanking her supporters. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the rest of my life now, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.”
Also leaving the parliament is the politician formerly known as Ben Dawkins.
The MP was a member of the Labor party but was dumped by them, after spending some time as an independent, he joined One Nation, but later returned to being an independent after the chose to drop him from their 2025 election ticket.
In the lead up to the election he changed his name to Austin ‘Aussie’ Trump – and campaigned for policies in the style of US leader Donald Trump.
Update: 17-04-25 13:05 An earlier version of this article omitted Mark Pearson being the first member of the Animal Justice party to service in an Australian parliament, and Emma Hurst had been elected in NSW in 2019. OUTinPerth apologises to Mark Pearson, Emma Hurst and the Animal Justice Party for the error.
