‘People have had enough’: One Nation have WA premier in their sights after stunning by-election victory in Perth

One Nation’s newest MP says the voters of a byelection in Perth’s southern suburbs have sent a message to the entire country.

With 74 per cent of the vote counted in the Secret Harbour byelection, One Nation’s Luke Herdegen picked up a primary vote of 39.08 per cent, ahead of Labor’s Georgia Tree on 24.43 per cent, and Liberal candidate Ryan Robertson on 17.29 per cent.

Having secured victory, Herdegen is now One Nation’s first-ever member of the lower house in WA. The seat of Secret Harbour was previously held by Labor on a margin of 11 per cent.

Herdegen said the result was a clear judgment of WA Premier Roger Cook and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“People have had enough. They’re tired, they feel neglected in the outer southern suburbs,” Herdegen told reporters on Sunday, standing beside state One Nation leader Rod Caddies.

The pair were speaking in front of outgoing member Paul Papalia’s electoral office.

“They [Labor] have had a stranglehold on this area for 50 years plus, and they [voters] certainly sent a message to Canberra as well and to Anthony Albanese that they’re unhappy.”

Herdegen said the party was eyeing off more seats in the outer suburbs of Perth. These areas are typically dominated by Labor, but are now at risk of being swallowed up in the orange wave of One Nation in a cost of living crisis.

The two men said the premier’s seat of Kwinana is in One Nation’s sights.

“Kwinana, Baldivis, and Rockingham, they are ripe for the taking,” he said.

“This is One Nation heartland now.”

Caddies said the result would put extra pressure on Cook, and speculated that it could trigger a leadership spill pitting the premier against Amber-Jade Sanderson and Rita Saffioti.

“Roger Cook’s time is probably done, I reckon there’s people with knives in the background looking to push him out,” Caddies claimed.

“Labor insiders have been telling me that Roger will be getting a lot of pressure.”

In his leadership spill scenario, Caddies preferred Sanderson to win because she would be “easy to go up against” and Saffioti was a “more formidable opponent”.

The comments came as Georgia Tree took to social media to concede defeat on Sunday morning.

“While the result wasn’t what we hoped for, I am incredibly proud of what we achieved,” she said.

“I never took this community or the opportunity to represent you for granted.

Secret Harbour was first contested at the 2025 state election, but its predecessors had traditionally been held by Labor.

As it stands on Sunday afternoon, Herdegen leads the preference count over Tree on a margin of 7.04 per cent, which is a swing of more than 18 per cent based off the pre-election margin.

Herdegen confirmed he had spoken to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson over the phone on Saturday.

“I spoke to Pauline last night over the phone, she was very excited,” he said.

“[She] understands it sends a big message. I can’t remember the conversation to be honest, it was a blur, the phone was going off the hook.”

Hanson took to social media to congratulate Herdegen on his victory, the latest for the minor party in its surge in the past 12 months across state and federal seats.

“To see such a dramatic shift in support towards One Nation since the last WA election is just phenomenal,” Hanson wrote on social media.

“The result in Secret Harbour should be a warning to Labor, we’re coming for more of your seats.

“The support throughout this by-election has been exactly the same as what we’ve seen in South Australia, Farrer and Nepean. Endless volunteers, solid candidates, common-sense policies, and generous donations from regular Aussies.”

One Nation, Labor, disagree on cause of by-election upset

The result will serve as a warning to the state and federal Labor government’s, with the result potentially sending shockwaves in Australia’s political sphere.

The byelection in Secret Harbour, a coastal electorate about 60 kilometres south of Perth, was brought on by the retirement of long-standing Labor Minister Paul Papalia.

Senior government figures say One Nation’s victory was based purely on issues within Western Australia and Perth, dismissing talk that it was a wider judgement on the prime minister.

However, they conceded Labor needed to grow from the loss.

“This is a state election run on state issues and I think they’re the predominant issues,” Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.

“However, it is important that all of us have a good look at the results here, and think about what more we need to do to communicate the fact that the Labor Party is the only party, focused on real delivery to take pressure off ordinary Australians.

Caddies had the opposite view, claiming the result showed the two-party political system in Australia was “dead”.

“This government will claim this by-election is an abnormality, that it can’t be replicated in a general election, but the truth is, we know they threw everything at this bar the kitchen sink, and the people of Secret Harbour had the full, undivided attention of this government, and they still failed,” he said.

Hanson, who was not in Western Australia for the count, struck a similar tone on Sunday.

“Australians are choosing One Nation as a serious alternative to the tired old uni-party who have destroyed our nations economic prowess and made the cost of living so outrageously unaffordable,” she claimed.