Talk:2005 Western Australian state election

Barnett leader of the coalition?
I wasn't aware the WA Nationals were in any form of coalition with the WA Liberals... Timeshift (talk) 05:27, 4 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I just added the Lib leader's name, because it was strange (putting it mildly) for the article not to have the name of the alternative premier. By all means replace "Coalition" with "Liberals" if you think that's correct. The 1993, 1996 and 2001 election pages all say there was a Coalition. Peter Ballard (talk) 05:32, 4 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm not by any means doubting your contribution you just made. It's simply what made me see that coalition rather than Liberal was used. But the WA Nationals are as far from the Liberals as a state National Party gets. I don't count SA Nationals despite Maywald being in the Labor cabinet, as there's no real Liberal bashing by Nationals that goes on here in SA unlike in WA. Timeshift (talk) 05:37, 4 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Reading the refs it's pretty clear that a Coalition was in place at the time of the 2005 election. Whether or not they've severed ties since then, I dunno. As for Liberals and Nats not getting on, well some of the WA Libs don't get on with people in their own party either! (Again that's from reading the refs, I've got no first hand information). Peter Ballard (talk) 05:44, 4 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, there wasn't. There was ample media coverage of that at the state election in newspapers - the Nationals went their own way, openly attacking the Liberals on a range of issues, and the split was finalised when Wilson Tuckey attacked the Nationals in front of Liberal leader Colin Barnett. There was indeed a coalition in 2001, but the main guarantors of the Coalition agreement on the Nationals side had retired from politics by the time of the 2005 election (the iconic Hendy Cowan along with Eric Charlton). There is also instances prior to the 2005 election of the Nationals voting with Labor in the upper house on particular legislation, though I'd have to mine through Votes & Proceedings records to find which ones. Orderinchaos 08:25, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Just as an aside
This article is a shell which resulted from a major edit war in April 2007 and has not been touched since. As such, I had planned to rewrite it when I get time - I'm devoting pretty much all my on-wiki activity in August and September to WA politics, as speculation of an October election means we don't have much time to get it into shape. I'm trying to get a template going for WA elections which can then be used on anything from 1897 to 2005 (and beyond) - the first two elections, in 1890 and 1894, defy any particulars for a template and will need to be written individually. Orderinchaos 08:30, 4 August 2008 (UTC)