ALP 6.7%
Incumbent MP
Kim Giddens, since 2021.
Geography
Inner-southern Perth. Bateman covers the suburbs of Bateman, Booragoon, Mount Pleasant, Myaree, Winthrop and Kardinya. Bateman entirely lies inside the City of Melville.
Redistribution
No change.
History
Bateman was created in 2008, largely replacing the former district of Murdoch. Murdoch had existed from 1977 to 1989 and from 1996 to 2008. Murdoch and Bateman had consistently been won by the Liberal Party until 2021.
Murdoch was won in 2005 by Trevor Sprigg. He died in January 2008, triggering a by-election.
The 2008 by-election was easily won by Liberal candidate Christian Porter.
Porter was immediately appointed as Shadow Attorney-General. Murdoch was largely replaced by Bateman in 2008, and Porter was appointed Attorney-General in the newly elected Liberal government.
Porter became Treasurer in late 2010. In late 2012 he stepped down from the front bench to run for the federal seat of Pearce at the 2013 federal election, and stepped down from the state parliament at the 2013 election in anticipation of his federal run. He was elected to represent Pearce in 2013 and was re-elected in 2016.
The Liberal Party’s Matt Taylor won Bateman in 2013.
The redistribution prior to the 2017 election abolished the neighbouring seat of Alfred Cove and redrew Bateman significantly, taking in large parts of Alfred Cove and losing other areas to the newly-named seat of Bicton. Taylor moved to Bicton where he was defeated for re-election.
Bateman was won in 2017 by the Liberal Party’s Dean Nalder who had won Alfred Cove in 2013. Nalder retired in 2021, and Labor’s Kim Giddens won Bateman with a 14.5% swing.
- Juanita Doorey (Greens)
- Nitin Vashisht (Liberal)
- Kirsty Robbie (Australian Christians)
- Kim Giddens (Labor)
- Tony Stokes (Independent)
- Anahita Ghassemifar (Libertarian)
- Michael Mabood (One Nation)
- Donna Gordin (Nationals)
- Colleen Saporita (Animal Justice)
Assessment
Labor didn’t win Bateman by a particularly large margin, even with their massive victory in 2021. There are just four other Labor seats held by smaller margins. If the Liberal Party don’t regain this seat, they will be doing very badly.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Kim Giddens | Labor | 12,106 | 45.8 | +15.5 |
| Matt Woodall | Liberal | 9,762 | 37.0 | -12.8 |
| Adam Abdul Razak | Greens | 1,815 | 6.9 | -3.5 |
| Steve Kepert | Independent | 856 | 3.2 | +3.2 |
| Fiona McKenzie-Brown | Australian Christians | 774 | 2.9 | -0.2 |
| Gregory Leech | Liberal Democrats | 341 | 1.3 | +1.3 |
| Christina Tseng | No Mandatory Vaccination | 314 | 1.2 | +1.2 |
| Bill Koul | Western Australia Party | 228 | 0.9 | +0.1 |
| Barry Mason | One Nation | 213 | 0.8 | -3.2 |
| Informal | 762 | 2.8 |
2021 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Kim Giddens | Labor | 14,963 | 56.7 | +14.5 |
| Matt Woodall | Liberal | 11,436 | 43.3 | -14.5 |
Polling places have been split into three parts: north, south-east and south-west.
Labor’s two-party-preferred vote ranged from 50.6% in the north to 61.2% in the south-west.
| Voter group | ALP 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| South-West | 61.2 | 3,656 | 13.8 |
| South-East | 57.1 | 3,470 | 13.1 |
| North | 50.6 | 2,781 | 10.5 |
| Pre-poll | 57.0 | 10,694 | 40.5 |
| Other votes | 55.9 | 5,808 | 22.0 |
Election results in Bateman at the 2021 WA state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens.
My prediction: Liberal gain, another seat Labor won’t win until they get > 60% of the statewide TPP vote again.
The old seat of East Melville, covering a similar area, was staunch Liberal 1962-1989, and the only other non-Labor victory in this area was when Janet Woollard won the northern parts of this seat, when it was part of Alfred Cove 2001-2013.
Kim Giddens appears to be a strong MP, she held on even as the statewide Labor 2PP fell below 60%. I also made a typo in my post earlier, before her first win in 2021, the only non-Liberal to win this area was Janet Woollard.
It’s not over yet
Sry I posted that on wrong thread
This has to be the seat the Liberals are most disappointed about their performance in. Currently a 3.7% swing in one of the most winnable seats on offer.
They should win it in 2029. That will be their chance to win govt.
@North by West, there were plenty of disappointing seats in Perth. Even in Churchlands and Nedlands they’re now marginal Liberal seats despite normally being blue-ribbon. Carine was by far the best result for the Liberals in Perth, not sure why they did so well there compared to in the more inner-city Liberal seats, I guess the candidate was really good.
The Liberals might only just scrape Kalamunda and South Perth or they might end up narrowly missing out, which either way is also a disappointment. They also didn’t gain seats like this and Scarborough.
My current guess is that the WA Liberals will slowly gain more and more seats in Perth while holding on to their current ones, similar to what happened in Queensland with the Coalition after losing in a landslide in 2001. Eventually it might also cause the WA Liberals and the WA Nationals to be like their Queensland counterparts and either merge or do what they do in NSW (i.e have certain seats that either party contests and they don’t have two candidates in one seat).
@NP Liberals did well in Carine bc from what I’ve heard, the Labor incumbent was pretty invisible in the community. However take my comment with a grain of salt considering I’m going off by one online comment that I can’t find.
@Lurking Westie that would make sense then. I think you might be onto something since the new member for Carine, Liam Staltari, was the unsuccessful candidate for Kalamunda in 2021, so the locals even preferred a parachuted candidate over their own local member.
Staltari has moved to the Carine area since the last election.
I think the Liberals may have been struggling for candidates in a few places – Vashisht won preselection here unopposed (strange for a gettable seat), as did Spencer-Teo in Riverton.
Check out the Applecross booth – an 8.2% swing TO Labor. They’ve actually won a booth they didn’t in 2021, which is a rare honour. The same booth went 59% to Libs in Tangney last federal election (already a historically good result for Labor).
@Bird of paradox: The Labor primary vote of the Applecross Primary School booth rose from 36.7% in 2021 to 38.1% in 2025, while the Liberal primary vote dropped from 42.2% in 2021 to 37.4% in 2025. Labor has definitely won this booth in 2025 that it didn’t in 2021. Don’t know where did you get the figure of 8.2% (presumably 2PP) swing to Labor from, as I can’t find the 2CP by booth results for the 2025 state election. There must be some dramatic realignment in favour of Labor happening in this area, which further increases the chances of Labor retaining Tangney in the May federal election despite Labor having won Tangney only twice before and no Labor MP has ever been re-elected in Tangney.
Figures from Poll Bludger:
https://www.pollbludger.net/wa2025/Results/LA.htm?s=Bateman
Looking at the booth maps (for both Bateman and Bicton) is wild. The area north of Canning Hwy near the river is one of the fanciest parts of Perth – million-dollar houses even before the property market went vertical – and it’s a sea of red.
Another stray thought: this is the second election in a row the Libs have won no lower house seats south of the river – in 2021 the only Liberal anywhere in this area was Nick Goiran. He’s been joined by Michelle Hoffman (assuming the Libs stick to what they said about observing the old regions), but that’s it. Having just two state MPs for half of Perth won’t help with the federal campaign.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it can be explained by the Bateman early booth in Applecross. That and the Applecross day booth swung near equally in the opposite direction. Roughly only 20% of eligible voters (2023 profile.id estimation) in Applecross formally voted at that day booth.
@bird south Perth is still in doubt. Also the only federal seat they probably have a hope in south of the river is Tangey anyway. The state results look good for divisions like Curtin, Bullwinkel canning, Hasluck Moore and pearce.
@John, look good for whom, Labor or Liberal?
@John but apparently state and federal are different issues according to you? How is it that now that you’re interpreting state swings to Liberals are good signs federally when you’ve dismissed suggestions that Labor will be able to hold on federally after the election because of the state and federal differences.
Plenty of holes in your theory.
@tommo as I e previously stated labor are in govt at both levels and that is the reason. Also if the swings against a popular state govt that’s got a good economic record and popular leader are this big how do you think an unpopular federal govt with an unpopular leader during a Col crisis is going to fair. And yes there is a break in correlation between state and federal results otherwise state labor would have been punished for federal labor’s problems. Liberals will win Bullwinkel and Curtin and I’m about 99% sure of Tangey too. All federal seats will swing back to the libs after the abnormality of 2022 the results here show Pearce and Hasluck could possibly be won by the libs and Moore will be safe. Labor will hold all their other seats but the libs could be a shot at swan and down at the next election after this one depending on several factors. And without bassandean I’d give them a wildcard shot at Perth. Seats like Burt and Brand will be safe seats but Freo could be lost if Hulett chooses to run. It will be decided based on liberal preferences as was the state seat. Luke Wilson is from the left side of the party opposing things like aukus. Libs won’t be doing him any favours for free.
In regards to libs at state level I think there future is north of the swan rather then on the south.
Churchlands swung 3.4% Liberal. Nedlands 7.5%. Scarborough 4.8%. Cottesloe was a drop of 1.4% albeit with a new Liberal-Ind margin. These are dismal results in the context of a 12-13% swing statewide. And yet John would somehow claim that this is a good sign for Liberals in Curtin.
You can’t have it both ways John. Calling state results in Bullwinkel a good sign for the Liberals means acknowledging where they fell short and going by your logic, will also be disappointed in the Federal election. And that means accounting for the fact that the swing won’t be 10%+ statewide in WA either. Writing off 2022 as an abnormality isn’t supported in the polling.
Add a I’ve seen the polling in Curtin and I would bet my house on the libs winning at this point in time
The liberal primary increased in Curtin however and the new member won on primaries alone. The was a 2pp drop it that was against a highly inflated labor 2pp margin. If 2021 had not happened it would have been an increase in 2cp towards the libs. Kate Chaney margin is relatively smaller in Curtin and remember Curtin does not contain labor voting north Fremantle as Cottesloe does. If north Fremantle was not in Cottesloe the lib margin would have been greater. I never said anything about state results in Bullwinkel. I merely said the state results would look good in those federal seats. As I’ve continually stated federal labor is nowhere near state labor in terms of popularity of the party or leader. And the wa economy is performing far better than the country as a whole and is probably what’s keeping it above water. Labor also has the problem of no incumbent mp in Bullwinkel as did Kalamunda and central wheatbelt and labor suffered a huge swing in both. The swing in central wheatbelt was so bad labor didn’t even make the 2pp and it ended up being lib v Nat. Labor will lose Bullwinkel off swings in the Kalamunda and central wheatbelt parts alone.
That should read tthe liberal primary increase in cottesloe
@adda article in the ABC https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-16/federal-seat-of-pearce-in-play-after-wa-election/105047540