What do the election results in Western Australia mean?

Voters have thrown out the two-term government of Liberal Premier, Colin Barnett, overwhelmingly turning to Labor, which may end up with as many as 41 MPs in the 59-seat parliament. Mark McGowan will soon be sworn in as the Premier of WA.

Premier elect Mark McCowan with his family, after winning the WA elections Source: AAP

As vote counting continues in the last few West Australian seats, One Nation appears to have fallen well short of expectations.

 

The size of the loss has surprised the Liberals with at least three Liberal ministers losing their seats.

 

The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has distanced himself from this electoral loss, but is refusing to rule out the possibility of future preference deals with Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party at a federal level.

 

That's after the controversial arrangement failed to secure greater parliamentary representation for One Nation or the Liberals in the West Australian state election.

 

 

Leader Pauline Hanson remains optimistic about her party's chances of picking up one or two seats in the upper house of the state parliament. She says she's "thrilled" at the outcome.