Western Australian state election, 2008

← 2005

6 September 2008 (2008-09-06)

2013 →

All 59 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
and all 36 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Council
30 Assembly seats were needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Alan Carpenter	Colin Barnett	Brendon Grylls
Party	Labor	Liberal	Nationals WA
Leader since	25 January 2006 (2006-01-25)	6 August 2008 (2008-08-06)	21 June 2005 (2005-06-21)
Leader's seat	Willagee	Cottesloe	Central Wheatbelt
Last election	32 seats	18 seats	5 seats
Seats won	28 seats	24 seats	4 seats
Seat change	4	6	1
Percentage	35.84%	38.39%	4.87%
Swing	6.05	2.76	1.18

Premier before election

Alan Carpenter
Labor

Resulting Premier

Colin Barnett
Liberal

Alan Carpenter
Labor

Colin Barnett
Liberal

A general election was held in the state of Western Australia on Saturday 6 September 2008 to elect 59 members to the Legislative Assembly and 36 members to the Legislative Council. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party government, in power since the 2001 election and led since 25 January 2006 by Premier Alan Carpenter, was defeated by the centre-right Liberal Party opposition, led by Opposition Leader Colin Barnett since 6 August 2008.

The election resulted in a hung parliament with no party gaining a majority. Labor was two seats short of a majority in the expanded legislature. Ultimately, the Liberals were able to form a coalition government with the WA Nationals, supported by three independents. While both parties agreed to National demands that at least 25 percent of mining proceeds go to regional projects, the Nationals ultimately went with the Liberals. According to Nationals leader Brendon Grylls, a Labor-National coalition would have required the support of Green support to get mining legislation passed in the Legislative Council. The coalition agreement gave National Party ministers "the right to exempt [themselves] from Cabinet and vote against an issue on the floor of the Parliament if it's against the wishes of the people [they] represent," an explicit rejection of the pattern of former non-Labor coalition agreements under which the Nationals had been seen as virtual co-owners of Liberal policies.

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