Bicton – WA 2025

ALP 16.0%

Incumbent MP
Lisa O’Malley, since 2017.

• Geography
• Redistribution
• History
• Candidate summary
• Assessment
• 2021 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Geography
Bicton covers suburbs on the south side of the Swan River, including Attadale, Melville, Willagee, O’Connor and parts of East Fremantle and Kardinya. The seat covers the western end of the Melville council area, half of the East Fremantle council area and a small part of the City of Fremantle.

Redistribution
Bicton took in Willagee and part of Kardinya from Willagee, and took in O’Connor from Fremantle, and lost part of East Fremantle to Bicton.

History
Bicton was created in 2017, primarily replacing Alfred Cove, with almost as many voters moved into Bicton from Fremantle.

The seat of Alfred Cove was created in 1996 as a notional safe Liberal seat, with a margin of over 20%.

In 1996, sitting Liberal Member for Melville Doug Shave decided to run for the new seat of Alfred Cove. He was challenged for preselection by Penny Hearne.

Shave narrowly defeated Hearne, and she resigned from the Liberal Party to run as an independent. Shave narrowly held on by a 2.4% margin.

In 2001, the ALP did not run in Alfred Cove, and a number of minor parties and independents targeted the seat.

Janet Woollard ran for the Liberals for Forests party, and polled just over 20% of the primary vote, while another independent also polled 20% of the vote. Shave’s vote fell to under 33%, and he lost to Woollard on preferences. Woollard achieved a 7.4% margin.

Woollard’s margin has been reduced at every election since 2001. Her vote after preferences fell to 54.6% in 2005 and 51% in 2008.

In 2013, Woollard dropped to third place, and lost the seat to Liberal candidate Dean Nalder.

The 2017 redistribution abolished Alfred Cove and created a new seat of Bicton. Nalder shifted to the redrawn electorate of Bateman, and was re-elected there. He currently serves as shadow treasurer.

Liberal MP Matt Taylor, who had held the seat of Bateman since 2013, attempted to move to Bicton, but lost to Labor candidate Lisa O’Malley. O’Malley was re-elected in 2021.

Candidates

• Adam Bennett (Greens)
• Chris Dowson (Liberal)
• Bill Koul (Nationals)
• Lisa O’Malley (Labor)

Assessment
Bateman has a long history of leaning to the right, being won either by Liberal candidates or independents. While the Labor margin looks very strong here, Labor probably doesn’t need to hold this seat to win another majority. That’s not a prediction that Labor will lose here, but if the Liberal Party is coming back they would need to do well here.

2021 result

2021 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Polling places have been split into three parts: north, south-east and south-west.

Labor’s two-party-preferred vote ranged from 57.1% in the north to 69.9% in the south-east.

The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 7.9% in the north to 15.3% in the south-west.

Election results in Bicton at the 2021 WA state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens.

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