Secret Harbour shellacking a warning for Labor, Coalition

August 30, 2026 — 4:36pm

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Last week, on his 45th visit to Western Australia, Anthony Albanese promised his government would never alter the outrageously generous GST deal that hands extra cash to Australia’s richest state.

West Australians (barely) thanked him for the guarantee, and then on Saturday handed Labor a thrashing in a byelection for the state seat of Secret Harbour.

While some may argue that One Nation’s thumping win in Secret Harbour means little for federal politics, that would be a mistake.

Albanese did not visit Secret Harbour, claiming last week that he didn’t campaign in state byelections – never mind that he opened a Medicare urgent care clinic in the WA state seat of Rockingham during a 2023 byelection – and will probably play down the federal implications of this result.

WA Labor has been in power at a state level for nearly a decade, which made it harder for the party to hang on, and it’s true that state and federal issues don’t overlap perfectly.

But the fact that the winning candidate, Luke Herdegen,........

© The Age