Mid-West – WA 2025

NAT 8.4%

Incumbent MP

• Shane Love (Nationals), member for Mid-West since 2013.
• Merome Beard (Liberal), member for North West Central since 2022.

• Geography
• Redistribution
• History
• Candidate summary
• Assessment
• 2021 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Geography
Mid-West covers a large part of the north of the state, stretching from Coral Bay to the northern fringe of Perth, with an exception of the area around Geraldton. Most of the seat’s population lies to the south of Geraldton.

Redistribution
Mid-West is an amalgamation of the former seats of Moore and North West Central, with about 80% of the voters coming from Moore, while most of the land mass came from North West Central.

History
Mid-West is a new seat, primarily replacing the seat of Moore, but also taking over a majority of voters from the seat of North West Central.

Moore was a traditional Country/National seat that was held by the party from 1950 until the mid-1980s.

In 1985 the sitting National Country MP switched to the Liberal Party. The Liberals held the seat from 1985 until 2008. Bill McNee held the seat from 1989 until 2005.

The 2008 redistribution saw the abolition of the National-held seat of Greenough, and Moore effectively was redrawn to cover most of the two pre-existing electorates.

Grant Woodhams had won Greenough for the Nationals in 2005. Prior to his election, the Liberal Party had held the seat since 1945.

In 2008, Woodhams was pitted against Liberal Member for Moore Gary Snook. While Snook led on the primary vote (40% against 32%) he benefited from Labor preferences and won the seat with 53.1% of the vote after preferences.

Woodhams retired after one term, and he was succeeded by Nationals candidate Shane Love. Love was re-elected in 2017 and 2021. Love was elected leader of the Nationals in early 2023.

The seat of North West Central can be traced back to the seat of North West Coastal, formed in 2005 from parts of the abolished seats of Burrup and Ningaloo. Both seats had existed since 1996.

Burrup was held over those nine years by the ALP’s Fred Riebeling, and Ningaloo was held by Rod Sweetman for the Liberal Party.

In 2005, Riebeling ran for the ALP in North West Coastal while Sweetman was unsuccessful in finding a seat elsewhere for either the Liberal Party or Family First. Riebeling won the seat despite a small swing to the Liberal Party.

In 2008, Riebeling retired and the ALP ran Vince Catania, who had served one term in the Legislative Council. Sweetman returned to run for the Liberals. The seat was renamed to North West after more areas further from the coast were added to the seat.

Catania won with no swing against him, despite only polling 36% of the vote, and the combined vote for the Liberal and National candidates almost reaching 49%. The Liberal candidate came second, with the Nationals a close third.

Catania resigned from the ALP and joined the Nationals in 2009, and he was re-elected to represent the renamed seat of North West Central in 2013, 2017 and 2021.

Catania resigned from parliament in 2022, and the subsequent by-election was won by Nationals candidate Merome Beard.

Beard resigned from the Nationals in October 2023 in order to join the Liberal Party.

Candidates

• Shane Love (Nationals)

Assessment
This is a hard seat to pick, but it seems more likely the Nationals will hold the seat. Love is his party’s leader, and most of the voters in Mid-West have come from his seat. But Beard’s prospects as a Liberal couldn’t be ruled out.

2021 result – Moore

2021 two-party-preferred result – Moore

2021 result – North West Central

2021 two-party-preferred result – North West Central

2022 by-election result – North West Central

2022 by-election two-party-preferred result – North West Central

Booth breakdown

Polling places have been split into four parts. Three of the four areas are in the southern end of the electorate, south of Geraldton. This area was split into south, mid-south and mid-north. The remainder was grouped as “north”.

The Nationals two-party-preferred vote ranging from 52.4 in the south to 70.5% in the mid-south.

The Liberal Party came third, with a primary vote ranging from 6.5% in the north to 21.2% in the mid-south.

Election results in Mid-West at the 2021 WA state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Nationals, Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens.

Election results at the 2022 North West Central by-election
Toggle between two-candidate-preferred votes (Nationals vs Liberal) and primary votes for the Nationals, the Liberal Party and the Greens.

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