Australian Senate special election in Western Australia, 2014

A half-Senate election for the election of six Senators occurred in Western Australia on 5 April 2014. Preferences were distributed on 29 April 2014. The outcome was 3 Liberal, 1 Labor, 1 Green and 1 Palmer United Party. Compared to the 2013 result, the Sport party's Wayne Dropulich was replaced by Zhenya Wang of the Palmer United Party.

The election was called after the result of the 2013 Australian federal election for the seats was voided by the High Court of Australia, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, on 20 February 2014. The election came about as a result of 1,375 ballot papers being lost during an official recount in November 2013. The High Court ruled that because the number of lost ballots far exceeded the margin for the two remaining Senate seats, the only acceptable remedy was to throw out the results and hold a fresh election. This decision set in motion the process of a special election.

The election is unprecedented in Australian federal politics. An election was held in South Australia in 1907 for the election of one senator under a previous electoral system. Half-Senate elections without a corresponding Australian House of Representatives election have occurred several times due to effluxion of time, the last one having been held in 1970.

The date was set by Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove on the advice of Prime Minister Tony Abbott. However, the onus for setting times and processes fell on the Governor of Western Australia, Malcolm McCusker, on the advice of Premier Colin Barnett, in McCusker's obligations under the operation of the Election of Senators Act 1903 (WA).

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