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The Darling Range seat in the Legislative Assembly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 The Darling Range seat in Western Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A by-election for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Darling Range was held on 23 June 2018 following the resignation of Barry Urban on 8 May.[1]
Won by Labor for the first time in the seat's history at the landslide 2017 state election, the Liberals regained the seat.[2]
Following a large 19 percent two-party swing, Barry Urban was the first ever Labor candidate to be elected to the previously safe Liberal seat of Darling Range in the seat's 64 year history at the landslide state election in March 2017. In November 2017, Urban resigned from Labor and moved to the crossbench to sit as an independent, after questions were raised about his academic claims and his wearing an overseas police service medal he had not been awarded. Urban was referred to the procedures and privileges committee, which in May 2018 recommended his expulsion from the Legislative Assembly for contempt of parliament and misleading the House. Urban resigned immediately after the committee's report was released.[3]
Labor originally selected Colleen Yates as its candidate for the by-election. However, on 24 May 2018, Yates announced that she would withdraw from the race, after reporters discovered that she had incorrectly claimed multiple university degrees which she had never obtained on her LinkedIn profile.[4]
| Candidates (11) in ballot paper order[5] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Background | |
| Western Australia | Russell Goodrick | TV producer and journalist. Candidate for East Metropolitan region at the 2017 election.[5] | |
| Greens | Anthony Pyle | Disability support worker. Candidate for Armadale at the 2017 election.[6] | |
| Animal Justice | Jehni Thomas-Wurth | City of Armadale Librarian.[5] | |
| Liberal | Alyssa Hayden | Former member of the Legislative Council for East Metropolitan region.[5] | |
| Fluoride Free | John Watt | Candidate for East Metropolitan region at the 2017 election.[5] | |
| One Nation | Rod Caddies | Candidate for Agricultural region at the 2017 election.[5] | |
| Labor | Tania Lawrence | Manager at Woodside Petroleum and former public servant.[7] | |
| Christians | Eric Eikelboom | [5] | |
| SFF | Stuart Ostle | Candidate for Darling Range at the 2017 election.[5] | |
| Independent | Doug Shaw | Realtor and property manager.[5] Former state president of Pauline Hanson's One Nation.[8] | |
| Independent | George O'Byrne | [5] | |
| Date | Firm | Commissioned by | Sample | Primary vote | Two-party vote | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALP | LIB | ONP | GRN | OTH | UND | ALP | LIB | |||||
| c. 14 June 2018 | ReachTEL | The Weekend West[9] | >600 | 37.5% | 31% | 9.4% | 3.5% | ~8.5% | ~10% | 54% | 46% | |
| 2017 election | 41.5% | 30.4% | 8.7% | 7.7% | 11.8% | 55.8% | 44.2% | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Alyssa Hayden | 8,418 | 34.5 | +4.1 | |
| Labor | Tania Lawrence | 7,809 | 32.0 | −9.5 | |
| One Nation | Rod Caddies | 1,894 | 7.8 | −1.0 | |
| Greens | Anthony Pyle | 1,427 | 5.8 | −1.8 | |
| Western Australia | Russell Goodrick | 1,413 | 5.8 | +5.8 | |
| Christians | Eric Eikelboom | 1,145 | 4.7 | +0.3 | |
| Shooters, Fishers, Farmers | Stuart Ostle | 1,112 | 4.6 | +0.3 | |
| Animal Justice | Jehni Thomas-Wurth | 803 | 3.3 | +3.3 | |
| Independent | Doug Shaw | 146 | 0.6 | +0.6 | |
| Independent | George O'Byrne | 137 | 0.5 | +0.5 | |
| Fluoride Free WA | John Watt | 106 | 0.4 | +0.4 | |
| Total formal votes | 24,410 | 95.6 | +0.5 | ||
| Informal votes | 1,126 | 4.4 | −0.5 | ||
| Turnout | 25,536 | 78.4 | −11.1 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Liberal | Alyssa Hayden | 13,039 | 53.5 | +9.3 | |
| Labor | Tania Lawrence | 11,331 | 46.5 | −9.3 | |
| Liberal gain from Labor | Swing | +9.3 | |||
Ninety-two minutes after polling booths closed, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Antony Green called the by-election for the Liberals.[2]
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