A leadership election for the

Western Australian Labor Party The Western Australian Labor Party, officially known as WA Labor, is the Western Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It is the current governing party of Western Australia since winning the 2017 state election under Mark McGo ...

occurred on 6 June 2023 following the resignation of party leader and

premier of Western Australia The premier of Western Australia is the head of government of the state of Western Australia. The role of premier at a state level is similar to the role of the prime minister of Australia at a federal level. The premier leads the executive br ...

Mark McGowan Mark McGowan (born 13 July 1967) is an Australian former politician and naval officer who served as the 30th premier of Western Australia from 2017 until his retirement in 2023. He was the leader of the Western Australian branch of the Austr ...

in June 2023. The three contenders to replace McGowan were Roger Cook, Amber-Jade Sanderson and Rita Saffioti. Saffioti withdrew on 30 May in exchange for being Cook's deputy, and Sanderson withdrew on 30 May, leaving Cook as the sole nominee for leader.

Background

has been leader of the

from January 2012 and

from March 2017. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, he achieved record levels of popularity and won the

2021 Western Australian state election The 2021 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 13 March to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, where all 59 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly and all 36 seats in the We ...

in a landslide, winning 53 out of 59 possible seats in the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House, Perth, Parliament House in the Western Australian capi ...

and a majority in the

Western Australian Legislative Council The Western Australian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia, a state of Australia. It is regarded as a house of review for legislation passed by the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, Legislative A ...

for the first time in the Labor Party's history. The next election is due in 2025. On 29 May 2023, McGowan announced his resignation as premier and member for Rockingham, saying that "the truth is I'm tired, extremely tired. In fact, I'm exhausted", and that he did not want to lead the party into the 2025 state election. He was amongst a minority of the WA Labor caucus to be factionally unaligned, and was said to be seen as being "above" the factional system.

Candidates

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WAtoday ''WAtoday'' is an online newspaper, focusing its coverage on Perth and Western Australia. It was established on 10 June 2008 and is owned by Nine Entertainment (formerly Fairfax Digital). The company employs ten journalists in Perth. It is ba ...

, ''

Business News Business journalism is the part of journalism that tracks, records, analyzes, and interprets the business, economic and financial activities and changes that take place in societies. Topics widely cover the entire purview of all commercial act ...

'' and ''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...

'' reported that the most likely candidates to replace McGowan are Deputy Premier Roger Cook, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti. Cook and Sanderson are both part of the Labor Party's left faction, which is the dominant faction within WA Labor. Saffioti is unaligned factionally, but is closely allied with McGowan. The remaining faction is the right faction, also known as progressive Labor. Cook confirmed his intention to run for the election on 29 May. Cook has been the member for Kwinana since September 2008, deputy leader of the WA Labor Party since September 2008, and a minister in the McGowan government since March 2017. He was in the prominent position of

Health Minister A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

from March 2017 to December 2021, including during the

. Saffioti said on 29 May that she was considering putting herself up as a candidate for leader but has not confirmed anything yet. She has been the member for West Swan since September 2008 and a minister in the McGowan government since March 2017, most notably as Transport Minister and Minister for Planning. Sanderson has been the member for Morley since March 2017 and a minister in the McGowan government since March 2021. Before that, she had been a member for the East Metropolitan Region in the upper house from May 2013 to February 2017. In December 2021, she was promoted to the prominent position of

. Unpublished polling conducted by Painted Dog Research for ''The West Australian'' in January 2023 found that Cook was favoured by 15 percent of voters to succeed McGowan if he were to retire. Saffioti was favoured by 13 percent, Sanderson was favoured by 6 percent, and 37 percent had "no idea".

Voting procedures

Negotiations and nominations

Labor's left faction holds 45 out of the party's 75 seats. The faction consists of the

United Workers Union The United Workers Union (UWU) is an Australian trade union. Described as the biggest blue-collar union in Australia, the UWU covers more than 150,000 workers within over 45 industries, including warehousing, defence, hospitality, health, disabil ...

(UWU) and the

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), officially registered as the Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing, and Kindred Industries Union, is an Australian trade union. The AMWU represents a broad range of workers in the manu ...

(AMWU). An emergency meeting of the Labor caucus will be called. Nominations must be made within the three days after that meeting. Candidates must receive written support of at least 20 percent of the caucus. A ballot will then be held in which the caucus will have 50 percent of the vote and the rank-and-file party members will have 50 percent of the vote. This process could take up to four weeks, unless there is only one candidate, in which case there will not be a vote. These rules were instituted following the political instability of the Rudd and Gillard federal Labor governments. Cook expressed a desire for the party to unite behind one candidate so that the process could be completed by the end of the week. 26 Labor MPs affiliated with the UWU held a meeting on the morning of 30 May to determine who to support. They chose to support Sanderson over Cook, 17 votes to 11. The 17 AMWU members held a meeting on the afternoon of 30 May, unanimously choosing to back Cook to be leader and Saffioti to be deputy leader and

treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...

. After that, Saffioti withdrew from leadership contention and put her support behind Cook, and Sanderson withdrew from contention, leaving Cook as the sole nominee. The right faction met on 31 May and chose to support Cook.

Vote

Cook and Saffioti were confirmed as the new leader and deputy leader, respectively, on 6 June 2023.

Aftermath

McGowan formally resigned on Thursday 8 June and Cook and his ministry were sworn in on that day. Cook was the first premier of Western Australia from Labor's left and the first Labor premier since Brian Burke to be factionally aligned. Had Saffioti and Sanderson not stood aside, either could have balloted the entire WA Labor membership leaving the State with an interim premier for up to two months. In October 2023, a review recommended that Labor caucus have sole responsibility for selecting a new premier when Labor is in government, sidelining rank and file members. A full ballot would still be held when the party is in opposition. As well as McGowan's abrupt departure, the example of the election of

Liz Truss Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth da ...

the previous year in the UK's ruling Conservative party was a factor in the proposed rule changes.

References

{{Labor Party (WA) 2023 elections in Australia Australian Labor Party leadership spills Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch) leadership election 2020s in Western Australia Western Australian leadership spills