WA election 2025: Labor hold Scarborough in shock result, sees Stuart Aubrey re-elected for second term

Labor has held onto the seat of Scarborough in a major battleground seat win, a sign for the ALP that the northern suburbs has not fallen away completely. At 9.15 almost two thirds of the votes had been counted with Labor MP Stuart Aubrey led 42.27 per cent to Liberal challenger Damien Kelly’s 39.38 per cent. Before long it became clear Mr Aubrey was ahead in the race given a relatively strong Greens vote and at 9.30pm Mr Aubrey declared victory. Mr Aubrey told supporters at his Scarborough function he had received a call from the State Secretary saying he had been re-elected as the member for Scarborough and thanked his family, friends and supporters. In Trigg, Mr Kelly told his supporters at around 8.15pm while the road was tough, it wasn’t over yet. “Yes the booths for voting today don’t look great,” he said. “I was kind of expecting that, however we’re going to be relying on pre-poll to have any hope of retaining this seat.” Despite both The West Australian and other outlets calling the seat for Labor incumbent Stuart Aubrey, Mr Kelly told attendees he “was not conceding yet”. As it stood at the 9.15pm, the first preferences would be a 6.8 per cent swing away from Mr Aubrey and only a 3.8 per cent swing to the Liberals. It is the first time in almost 40 years Labor has retained the seat since doing so in the 1986 election with Graham Burkett. Both candidates — who are each self-proclaimed surfers — took to surf life saving clubs around 10 minutes from each other to stay with their faithful to watch the results come in. Mr Aubrey won the seat in 2021 by 10.4 per cent, receiving more than 49 per cent of the primary vote and was one of the more vulnerable electorates which was won by Labor. It was a swing of more than 16 per cent for Mr Aubrey who unseated Liza Harvey, who stepped down as opposition leader the year prior after criticising the hugely popular border closure policy during COVID. During the day both candidates were upbeat at polling stations. Mr Kelly cast his vote alongside his daughter at Deanmore Primary School while Mr Aubrey cast his ballot at Newborough Primary School. Mr Aubrey — joined by his pet pooch Kaya — told The West he was proud of his team’s effort over the election campaign. “We’ve worked really hard, team Scarborough and I have knocked on 21,000 doors across the Scarborough electorate,” he said. “I think we’re going to come away from it going no matter the outcome, we did everything we possibly could. “Over the last four years I’ve worked really hard as a member so I don’t think I’d walk away with any regrets going I could have done this better or I could have done that better, I think we’ve done everything we could.” Mr Kelly said he was “confident” of his chances but admitted it was now up to the voters to decide. Before 2021, the seat of Scarborough had not been held by Labor since 1989 when it was won by the Liberal’s George Strickland. While the seat was abolished for the 1996 election and replaced by Innaloo, it was re-formed in 2008 and had been held on a margin of between five and 12.1 per cent by Ms Harvey. Going into the 2025 election, Scarborough was set to be a bellwether seat, with both parties hopeful they could walk away with the electorate in their control. Scarborough featured heavily on the election campaign with both party leaders frequenting the electorate to make their pitch. The Liberals had pitched a number of funding grants for local projects such as repairing the damage to the Porter-Pascoe Street footbridge as well as upgrades to Scarborough Library, Bennett Park and Scarboro SLSC. Meanwhile Labor made their own pitches, including establishing a Stirling Station to Scarborough beach CAT bus, upgrades to Karrinyup Primary School and lighting at Charles Riley Reserve.