Electoral district of Cottesloe

Cottesloe Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
Location of Cottesloe (dark green) in the Perth metropolitan area
State	Western Australia
Dates current	1950–present
MP	Colin Barnett
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Cottesloe
Electors	27,407 (2017)
Area	35 km2 (13.5 sq mi)
Demographic	North Metropolitan

Cottesloe is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Cottesloe is named for the western Perth suburb of Cottesloe which falls within its borders. Its current member, Colin Barnett, was the 29th Premier of Western Australia.

Cottesloe was created at the 1948 redistribution, at which three new metropolitan electorates were created to replace former northern and agricultural seats in Parliament. Its first member was elected at the 1950 election, and it has always been a safe seat for the Liberal Party and its predecessors. It has only had three members: Hon. Sir Ross Hutchinson, Bill Hassell who served as Opposition Leader to Premier Brian Burke in 1984–1986, and Hon. Colin Barnett, who was elected at a by-election in 1990 and served as Deputy Premier, Minister for Energy and, after 1995, Education during the Court government in 1993–2001, and Opposition Leader in 2001–2005. Barnett, seen as a moderate within Liberal ranks, resigned the leadership after the 2005 election. He had originally planned to retire at the 2008 election, but after the troubled seven-month leadership of Troy Buswell and generally poor opinion polls, Barnett was persuaded to reconsider (the nominated candidate for Cottesloe, Deidre Willmott, stood aside), and regained the leadership on 6 August 2008 on a unanimous party vote, one day before the 2008 election was called. At this election, Barnett became Premier of a minority Liberal-National government.