The Labor government believes the redistribution of electoral boundaries announced on Friday will help it secure a win in WA and help it in its attempts to retain majority government.
While much of the attention on the redistribution has focussed on the Victorian Labor seat of Higgins being abolished, Labor sources said they believed they were now in front, based on the 2022 result, in the new WA seat of Bullwinkel.
The changes have also brought down the margin in shadow housing minister Michael Sukkar’s seat of Deakin to 50-50 and given Labor a show in the seat of Menzies.
Liberal sources have long talked up their prospects of winning four seats off Labor in WA and forcing the party into minority government but the redistribution has not assisted.
Labor calculations have the seat of Bullwinkel in the Labor column with 53.4 per cent of the vote, they have the margin in Swan increasing from 58.8 to 59.5, the margin in Pearce decreasing from 59 to 58.9 and Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie’s seat of Canning now winnable – moving from 46.4 to 48.9.
The Liberal seat of Moore remains marginal with Labor calculating its vote now at 49.2 per cent.