While Federal Labor has taken some comfort from the WA election results, swings against the party in Perth's outer suburbs haven't gone unnoticed. While not enough to unseat sitting state MPs, if replicated at a federal election, would put so-called safe seats in play. One of those is the federal seat of Pearce in Perth's far northern corridor. It's the most mortgaged electorate in the country and where cost of living is paramount.
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00:00Single mother, Leandra Bayman, is trying to pay off her Clarkson home.
00:05I'm somewhat comfortable in paying my mortgage.
00:09If it was any more though, I think I'd struggle and end up being homeless, really,
00:16or living at home with my mum again.
00:18The 36-year-old doesn't have a lot of spare cash and worries about the future.
00:23It's very scary. I've got two young children, aged three and four,
00:27if I got to the position where I couldn't make the payments, I would have to sell.
00:32At the recent state election, WA Labor retained the seats of Butler,
00:37Wanneroo, Mindari and Lansdale, despite suffering double-digit,
00:42two-party swings against it.
00:44The four seats fall within the federal seat of Pearce.
00:48Federal Labor won that seat for the first time in 2022,
00:52and after a redistribution, notionally holds it by a margin of 8.8 per cent.
00:57It should be a safe buffer, but the seat's now being considered as up for grabs
01:02in light of the WA election results.
01:05Tracey Roberts will be trying to defend Pearce,
01:08up against Liberal candidate and former state MP Jan Norberger.
01:12The electorate is the most indebted in the country,
01:15with more than one in two households having a home loan.
01:18Food relief providers servicing the Northern Corridor noting just that.
01:23The demographic has definitely changed over the last two years,
01:26and the people that we're seeing are people who often do have a house,
01:30they have got a mortgage, or they're living and they're paying rent,
01:34and they just can't make ends meet.
01:36While state election results are not a predictor of how people will vote
01:40in a federal poll, the ALP will be scrutinising the swings to the Liberals
01:45in these outer suburban seats, taking any lessons they can.
01:49Clearly Labor won't be happy about the large swings that they suffered
01:53in those outer suburbs, including in the seat of Pearce,
01:56but they would not be surprised because clearly cost of living
01:59and interest rates are a big issue.
02:01Professor Fillimore thinks federal Labor will be changing tack.
02:05I think they'll be pleasantly surprised that it may not need to put quite so much
02:09in to defend the seats around the river.
02:13Instead they'll be putting all their resources,
02:16if not all of them, most of them, out into those outer suburbs.
02:19The outer suburbs shaping up as the key battleground in the upcoming election.