The 2021 Western Australian lower house state election looks like the most lopsided state election for several years, and may be among the most lopsided ever. A Premier with near-universal approval who won a large majority last time around takes on an opposition onto its third leader of the term amid a pandemic that has seen large polling boosts in most places that have not completely stuffed it up. The comparison with the New Zealand landslide is impossible to avoid.
Even with no COVID-19 and no Opposition disarray it would be a massive upset for the McGowan government to lose. Two major patterns in predicting state results are "federal drag" (it is an advantage not to be the party in power in Canberra) and the age of the state government. The last loss by a first term government that was in opposition federally in any state was back in 1930 and the historically expected result for WA Labor would be to gain about three seats. That should be treated with some caution given that they have so many already, but to actually get near losing would be a massive outlier.
But there's been speculation that this might not be just a routinely heavy pasting of a hapless opposition (such as the crushings delivered by Labor Premiers Beattie, Bracks and Bacon at the end of their first terms in 2001-2) but rather something more spectacular. Is the opposition heading for Tarago territory or worse? The results of the opening Newspoll would suggest yes, while a uComms poll merely predicts an enormous but more manageable thrashing.
