INTERVIEW WITH SKY NEWS

13 March 2021

SUBJECTS: Labor’s resounding election victory in Western Australia.

ASHLEIGH GILLON, HOST: I'm joined here by the most senior Federal Labor member in this state, Madeleine King. She’s the Shadow Minister for Trade and Resources. Firstly, congratulations, what a night for the Labor Party here in WA. The political landscape has just been turned on its head.
 
MADELEINE KING, SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE AND RESOURCES: It’s absolutely remarkable, it's nothing you would have predicted. It's clearly unprecedented, to use a word we used too much in 2020. It changes, as you say, the landscape of the Western Australian Parliament and the Government and how it governs. It's going to be a challenging time clearly for the Liberal Party who are reduced to a mere handful of seats, so they will have to look into their depths to see what they can do to rebuild. In the meantime, I guess, from a WA Labor perspective, it's fantastic to see the faith the people of WA, the voters of Western Australia, put in Mark McGowan and his Labor government.
 
GILLON: What do you say to people who say this result is bad for democracy, that we have too much total control were the words that that Zak Kirkup uses to warn of Labor having a double majority.
 
KING: Well, the Western Australian people have voted this way. And in my experience, the voters don't get it wrong. They have heard the message from the Government. They have lived through the COVID crisis with this WA Labor government under the leadership of Mark McGowan and Roger Cook, and they voted for more of it. The government always has a responsibility to act in the best interests of Western Australians, and the people of Western Australia have put their faith in Mark and Roger and the whole team, and built the team up bigger. That's going to be a hard-working team, they've got a lot to do. There's going to be a lot of them. That's what the people decided.
 
GILLON: Madeleine King, appreciate you joining us. We’ll let you go and join the party.
 
KING: Thank you so much.