Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Perth, Western Australia

Named for: City of Perth (after Perth, Scotland. Sir George Murray(1772-1846), who was Colonial Secretary at the time Perth was founded, was MP for Perthshire in the House of Commons.)


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Central Perth: Maylands, Mt Hawthorn, Mt Lawley, Osborne Park, Yokine

Enrolment at 2019 election: 101,413
Enrolment at 2022 election: 122,580 (+21.0)

1999 republic referendum: No 52.6
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 71.5
2023 Voice referendum: Yes 53.7

Sitting member: Hon Patrick Gorman (Labor): Elected 2018 by-election, 2019, 2022

Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister,
Assistant Minister for the Public Service


2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 8.9%
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 5.9%
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 4.4%
2016 Labor majority over Liberal: 3.3%
2018 by-election Labor majority over Greens: 13.1%
2019 Labor majority over Liberal: 4.9%
2022 Labor majority over Liberal: 14.8%
2025 notional Labor majority over Liberal: 14.4%

Status: Safe Labor
Labor two-party vote 1983-2022


  • 2022 results
  • Statistics and history

  • Announced candidates:

    Hon Patrick Gorman
    Australian Labor Liberal Party
    Susanna Panaia
    Liberal Party

    Division of Perth

    Perth has existed since Federation, orginally covering the whole city except for Fremantle. Today it has been cut back to a block of suburbs running north-east from the city centre, and is a fairly typical inner-city seat, with a high proportion of people in professional and management occupations and people in non English speaking households, and a low level of families with dependent children. Like most seats of this type, it is fairly safe for Labor. The Liberals have not won Perth since 1980.

    Every member for Perth before 1983 was eventually defeated, but Dr Ric Charlesworth, who won the seat in 1983 for Labor, held it for ten years before retiring. Charlesworth was succeeded in 1993 by Stephen Smith, a former WA ALP State Secretary and advisor to Prime Minister Keating. Smith was Foreign Minister and Defence Minister in the Rudd-Gillard Government, and retired in 2013.

    Alannah MacTiernan, a former WA state minister, stepped into the breach when Smith announced his retirement shortly before the 2013 election. She retired after one term and returned to state politics. She was succeeded by Tim Hammond, a barrister who was elected federal vice-president of the party in 2015. Hammond was comfortably elected in 2016, but in early 2018 he decided to resign for family reasons. At the subsequent by-election, which the Liberals did not contest, Labor easily defeated the Greens. Perth thus had four Labor MPs in five years.

    Patrick Gorman, Labor MP for Perth since the 2018 by-election, was a senior staffer with Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. He was WA State Secretary of the ALP 2015-18. He is now Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, and for the Public Service.

    The 2024 redistribution has made minor changes to the seat without affecting the Labor majority. The large swings to Labor in WA in 2022 were largely due to state issues, particularly arising from the COVID pandemic. This means that the Labor majority in Perth is considerably over-stated. The Liberal candidate in 2025 will be Susanna Panaia, business services team leader with the City of Stirling.

    Boundaries following most recent redistribution:



    See full-size map of this Division

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