LIB 14.1%
Incumbent MP
David Honey, since 2018.
Geography
Inner north of Perth. The seat of Cottesloe covers the southern end of the western suburbs, including Cottesloe, Claremont, Mosman Park, North Fremantle, Mount Claremont and Bold Park.
Redistribution
Cottesloe gained City Beach from Churchlands. This increased the Liberal margin (based on 2017 votes) from 13.3% to 14.1%.
History
Cottesloe has existed since 1950, and has always been held by the Liberal Party.
The Liberal Party’s Ross Hutchinson won Cottesloe in 1950 after a successful football career. He held Cottesloe until his retirement in 1977, served as a minister from 1959 until 1971, and was Speaker from 1974 until 1977.
Bill Hassell, also of the Liberal Party, won the seat in 1977, and held it until 1990. Hassell was leader of the opposition from 1984 until 1986.
Liberal candidate Colin Barnett won Cottesloe in a 1990 by-election, and moved immediately to the frontbench. Barnett became deputy leader of the Liberal Party in 1992, and became a minister when the Liberal Party won government in 1993.
Barnett served as a minister for the entirety of the government, and Barnett took over the Liberal leadership shortly after the government lost power in 2001.
Barnett led the Liberal Party for the next term, and stepped down from the leadership after losing the 2005 election. Barnett announced a plan to retire from politics in late 2007, but suddenly became the party leader in August 2008 following the resignation of Troy Buswell. Barnett led the party into the September 2008 election, which was successful. Barnett became premier of a new Liberal-National government.
Barnett’s government won a second term at the 2013 election, but Barnett led the party to defeat in 2017.
Barnett retired from parliament in early 2018, and the subsequent by-election was won by Liberal candidate David Honey.
Candidates
- Paul Batsioudis (Waxit)
- R Drayton (No Mandatory Vaccination)
- Tony Parker (Independent)
- David Honey (Liberal)
- Gemma West (Labor)
- Theresa Moss (Greens)
Assessment
Cottesloe is a typical safe Liberal seat.The Liberal Party will probably hold this seat but no Liberal seat is safe if there is a massive Labor landslide.
2017 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Colin Barnett | Liberal | 13,264 | 56.7 | -8.1 | 57.6 |
| Caitlin Collins | Labor | 5,280 | 22.6 | +10.4 | 22.1 |
| Greg Boland | Greens | 2,826 | 12.1 | +1.8 | 11.9 |
| Alida Lancee | Independent | 1,332 | 5.7 | +5.7 | 5.5 |
| Riaan Groenewald | Australian Christians | 226 | 1.0 | -0.3 | 0.9 |
| Nicole Poppas | Micro Business | 198 | 0.8 | +0.8 | 0.8 |
| Michael Watson | Independent | 176 | 0.8 | +0.8 | 0.8 |
| Dmitry Malov | Independent | 103 | 0.4 | +0.4 | 0.4 |
| 0.1 | |||||
| Informal | 819 | 3.4 |
2017 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Colin Barnett | Liberal | 14,799 | 63.3 | -7.8 | 64.1 |
| Caitlin Collins | Labor | 8,590 | 36.7 | +7.8 | 35.9 |
2018 by-election result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| David Honey | Liberal | 10,872 | 59.9 | +3.2 |
| Greg Boland | Greens | 3,555 | 19.6 | +7.5 |
| Ron Norris | Western Australia Party | 1,636 | 9.0 | +9.0 |
| Michael Tucak | Independent | 977 | 5.4 | +5.4 |
| Cam Tinley | Micro Business | 605 | 3.3 | +3.3 |
| Michael Thomas | Independent | 402 | 2.2 | +2.2 |
| Dmitry Malov | Independent | 112 | 0.6 | +0.2 |
| Informal | 364 | 2.0 |
2018 by-election two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| David Honey | Liberal | 12,738 | 70.2 | |
| Greg Boland | Greens | 5,416 | 29.8 |
Booth breakdown
Booths have been divided into three parts: central, north and south.
The Liberal Party won the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas in 2017, ranging from 55.6% in the south to 67.3% in the north.
The Liberal primary vote in 2018 ranged from 49.6% in the south to 60.9% in the centre.
2017 booth breakdown
| Voter group | GRN prim % | LIB 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| North | 10.8 | 67.3 | 8,012 | 32.0 |
| Central | 11.3 | 66.2 | 5,862 | 23.4 |
| South | 12.6 | 55.6 | 4,087 | 16.3 |
| Pre-poll | 11.6 | 65.0 | 2,742 | 10.9 |
| Other votes | 14.0 | 62.5 | 4,363 | 17.4 |
2018 by-election booth breakdown
| Voter group | GRN prim % | LIB prim % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Central | 19.2 | 60.9 | 3,929 | 21.6 |
| North | 20.4 | 59.2 | 4,911 | 27.0 |
| South | 26.1 | 49.6 | 3,030 | 16.7 |
| Pre-poll | 17.8 | 63.1 | 3,491 | 19.2 |
| Other votes | 13.8 | 66.6 | 2,798 | 15.4 |
Election results in Cottesloe at the 2017 WA state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and Greens primary votes.
Election results at the 2018 Cottesloe by-election
Toggle between Liberal primary votes and Greens primary votes.
What makes the Western Perth suburbs so conservative leaning? I have always wondered why Julie Bishops old seat of Curtin (which covers parts of this seat) Is so conservative. I expect that if the Liberal party is going for annihilation this will be one of the only seats they have left and David Honey has a chance of being leader if Kirkup isn’t re-elected
Curtin is pretty much exclusively the most wealthy areas of Perth (Golden Triangle as it is known), It votes for conservatives for similar reasons to Wentworth and Warringah in Sydney.
Daniel: Old money. These suburbs are the Perth version of Toorak or Vaucluse.
That Mosman Park booth sticks out like a sore thumb – that’s near one of those big old state housing blocks. Formerly known as Battle St, apparently for good reason – it’s like a little patch of Bentley in the golden triangle.
Yes it’s basically the old money factor, and well-off urban professionals both voting for their financial interests. Your Turnbull type “small-l” Liberal is reflective of the coastal seats in inner metro Perth.
And Honey is the new leader – interestingly, I thought Vasse would be safer than here post-election, maybe Honey’s built a better local profile than Mettam.
And Honey is now likely to be deposed as leader. Could he run for Curtin at the next federal election? And would he win it off Chaney?
The Liberals are going to regret dumping Honey with someone who represents a regional part of WA who won’t be able to win many seats back in Metro Perth. Mettam will be lucky to lead her team to 10 seats at the next state election. She is Liza Harvey 2.0
The next election is 2 years away – after the last 3 or so years, I’m not going to make any predictions this far out.
For Curtin – depends on Chaney’s performance as an MP, and who the Liberals run. Gun to my head I’d say Chaney wins again, unless she badly screws up in the next 2 years.
I expect McGowan and company to be easily returned in 2025, all things said – don’t be surprised if McGowan retires in 2027 though (like Neville Wran and Bob Carr respectively did in 1986 and 2005).
i seriously doubt the voters in the very posh seat of Curtin will vote for 64 year old baby boomer male over a much younger female sitting MP who is part of a blue blood Liberal family. In fact, Chaney was one of the only two Teals the other being Zali Steggall who defeated conservative Liberal MPs. Celia Hammond was a poor fit for this seat and she was the only female MP defeated by a Teal.