LIB 7.4%
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
No change.
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.
Honey was one of only two Liberal MPs to retain his seat in 2021, and was elected leader after the election. Honey held the role until January 2023, when his sole colleague Libby Mettam challenged for the job and he stepped down for her.
Candidates
Sitting Liberal MP David Honey is not running for re-election after losing preselection.
Assessment
The Liberal Party managed to hold this seat despite enormous losses in 2021, so they shouldn’t have trouble retaining the seat in 2025.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| David Honey | Liberal | 12,624 | 46.8 | -10.7 |
| Gemma West | Labor | 7,637 | 28.3 | +6.2 |
| Theresa Moss | Greens | 3,410 | 12.7 | +0.8 |
| Tony Parker | Independent | 2,670 | 9.9 | +9.9 |
| R Drayton | No Mandatory Vaccination | 329 | 1.2 | +1.2 |
| Paul Batsioudis | WAxit | 276 | 1.0 | +0.2 |
| Informal | 715 | 2.6 |
2021 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| David Honey | Liberal | 15,470 | 57.4 | -6.6 |
| Gemma West | Labor | 11,470 | 42.6 | +6.6 |
Polling places have been split into three parts: central, north and south.
The Liberal Party achieved a two-party-preferred vote of 58.1% in the north and 60.5% in the centre. Labor polled 50.2% in the south.
The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 12.4% in the north to 17.5% in the south.
Independent candidate Tony Parker had a primary vote ranging from 8.4% in the south to 12.6% in the centre.
| Voter group | IND prim % | GRN prim % | LIB 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| North | 9.0 | 12.4 | 58.1 | 4,995 | 18.5 |
| Central | 12.6 | 13.4 | 60.5 | 4,175 | 15.5 |
| South | 8.4 | 17.5 | 49.8 | 2,860 | 10.6 |
| Pre-poll | 10.0 | 11.2 | 58.2 | 8,649 | 32.1 |
| Other votes | 9.3 | 12.1 | 57.3 | 6,267 | 23.3 |
Election results in Cottesloe at the 2021 WA state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor, the Greens and independent candidate Tony Parker.
Liberals have pre-selected Sandra Brewer of the Property Council as their candidate, pending approval. Safe seat, so unlikely to be in play, but what a kick in the guts to any renters living there.
I think voters here are going to be sceptical of an ex property council candidate standing for them as the Liberal candidate. Always been concerns over high density development in this seat. There is a Cott Independent group here that stand a strong chance if they pick the right candidate.
https://www.cottesloeindependent.com/
Independents in general will be a concern to the Liberals in the western suburbs of Perth.
Ideal for teal?
A teal wouldn’t win Cottesloe, but a community independent could per Malcolm.
@Malcolm I think it’ll be the same as NSW and Victoria, where the teams didn’t win any seats. They came second in Mornington in Melbourne (surprisingly, I suppose this is because of a campaign on local issues) and in a few Sydney seats but overall the Liberals still retained those seats, the only really close ones being Mornington in Melbourne and Pittwater in Sydney.
State Liberals are more moderate so the teal campaign is less relevant because in NSW both the Coalition and Labor support commonsense climate policies so you’ll notice that climate change hasn’t really been a big issue in NSW state elections. Same goes for the Tasmanian Liberals and Tasmanian Labor, they’ve both got commonsense climate policies so climate change isn’t an issue at Tasmanian state elections.
I think the Queensland LNP are starting to move to be more like their NSW counterparts by getting rid of a lot of the right-wing anti-abortion candidates and supporting more modern climate policies, whereas the federal Liberals are going backwards and supporting more right-wing policies (as were the SA Liberals under David Speirs who is now gone).
The federal seat of Curtin includes the bulk of this seat
Liberals shouldn’t lose it given they are in opposition and the federal seat of Curtin is also in play. However unlike Curtin this seat contains north fremantle
The Liberals really shouldn’t be losing Cottesloe given it was their only Perth holdout in the bloodbath that was 2021 but seem to be doing their best to do so given their choice of candidate.
Rachel Horncastle, a local doctor, will run as a community independent candidate for the upcoming state election
https://postnewspapers.com.au/
It seems she is Tealish. There is no 2030 target in WA and WA is the only state to see emissions grow since 2005.
The contest against a teal is much different to that against Labor.
At a federal level Labor could nor win Curtin