00:00You can see behind me here, this polling booth is really starting to come to life.
00:06The sausage sizzle is underway.
00:08All of my senses are starting to get really excited and rather hungry too.
00:11I haven't had any breakfast yet, but there are some baked goods there as well.
00:15The polling booth is starting to kind of come to life a bit.
00:18There's been a steady stream of people trickling in, getting their votes in ahead of the rest
00:23of their weekend activities, but we're not expecting too many crowds here today.
00:27We know that already more than 500,000 West Australians have cast their votes, so hopefully
00:34still more people to turn up here today, but yes, a busy day ahead.
00:37Okay, if voting isn't mandatory, at least the democracy sausages will get them out as
00:42well.
00:43Now, let's talk about the politics of this election.
00:47You're in Roger Cook, the Premier's electorate there, and this election has been described
00:53as a bit of a David and Goliath battle.
00:56How do you see the election playing out?
01:01That's right.
01:02Well, this is Roger Cook's first election as leader, so of course we know that Labor
01:07has enjoyed a comfortable eight years in power here in WA.
01:13Labor currently holds around 53 of the 59 seats in the lower house.
01:17They also hold power in both parties after their 2021 landslide victory under Mark McGowan.
01:24We know that that was due to reasons around COVID.
01:27There was a bit of an iron curtain, it was described as, around the borders, and that
01:31made West Australians very happy here in WA, but of course there are other issues that
01:36have popped up since.
01:37There's the housing, the cost of living crisis, ambulance ramping, health and hospitals, so
01:43no doubt that will be a bit of a chink in Labor's armour, but we'll see how that all
01:47plays out later in the day today.
01:49The Liberal Party currently only hold two seats.
01:52They aren't the opposition here, the Nationals are the opposition here in WA, but they are
01:56expecting to claw back more seats.
01:58We are expected to see a bit of a swing towards the Liberals here in WA, particularly in the
02:03regional and outer suburban seats.
02:07Around 12 seats we're seeing in contention, but of course that's nowhere near the 30 that
02:11they would need to form government.
02:12So looking like a comfortable Labor victory, but of course it's politics, anything can
02:16happen and we'll just have to wait and see how that all plays out later today.
Comments