1996 Western Australian state election

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All 57 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
and all 34 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Council
29 Assembly seats were needed for a majority

	First party	Second party
Leader	Richard Court	Geoff Gallop
Party	Liberal/National coalition	Labor
Leader since	12 May 1992	15 October 1996
Leader's seat	Nedlands	Victoria Park
Last election	32 seats	24 seats
Seats won	35 seats	19 seats
Seat change	Increase3	Decrease5
Popular vote	440,335	345,159
Percentage	45.69%	35.82%
Swing	Decrease3.79	Decrease1.26
TPP	55.16%	44.84%
TPP swing	Decrease0.28	Increase0.28

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Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 14 December 1996 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council. The Liberal–National coalition government, led by Premier Richard Court, won a second term in office against the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Dr Geoff Gallop since 15 October 1996.

The election resulted in the Liberals winning an outright majority for the first time in Western Australia's history. Although Court did not need the support of the Nationals, the coalition was retained. Meanwhile, Labor attracted its lowest share of the primary vote since 1901.

Western Australian state election, 14 December 1996[1] Legislative Assembly << 1993–2001 >>
Enrolled voters		1,119,992
Votes cast		1,007,835	Turnout	89.99%	–3.51%
Informal votes		44,229	Informal	4.39%	+0.26%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Liberal	384,518	39.90%	–4.25%	29	+ 3
	Labor	345,159	35.82%	–1.26%	19	– 5
	National	55,817	5.79%	+0.46%	6	± 0
	Democrats	48,985	5.08%	+2.76%	0	± 0
	Greens	45,550	4.73%	+0.42%	0	± 0
	Marijuana	3,245	0.34%	+0.34%	0	± 0
	Other parties	6,929	0.72%	–4.35%	0	± 0
	Independent [1]	74,179	7.70%	+1.21%	3	+ 2
Total		963,606			57
Two-party-preferred
	Liberal/National	530,603	55.16%	–0.28%
	Labor	431,245	44.84%	+0.28%

Notes:

¹ At the 1993 election, Liberal Party member Phillip Pendal won the South Perth seat, whilst Labor Party member Ernie Bridge won Kimberley. Both members resigned from their parties during the term of parliament, and won their seats as independents in 1996.

Western Australian state election, 14 December 1996 Legislative Council
Enrolled voters		1,119,992
Votes cast		1,009,592	Turnout	90.14%	–3.53%
Informal votes		30,430	Informal	3.01%	–0.73%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Liberal (metropolitan)	313,953	32.06%	–2.59%	7	– 1
	Liberal/National [1]	140,933	14.39%	–0.24%
	Liberal (country)	7	± 0
	National	3	± 0
	Labor	323,886	33.08%	–3.74%	12	– 2
	Democrats	64,461	6.58%	+3.57%	2	+ 2
	Greens	54,336	5.55%	+0.39%	3	+ 2
	Marijuana	24,373	2.49%	+2.49%	0	± 0
	Call to Australia	6,675	0.68%	+0.41%	0	± 0
	Australia First Party	5,856	0.60%	+0.60%	0	± 0
	Natural Law Party	5,514	0.56%	+0.56%	0	± 0
	Racism No!	1,939	0.20%	+0.20%	0	± 0
	Independent	37,236	3.80%	–0.38%	0	– 1
Total		979,162			34

¹ In the Agricultural and South West regions, the Liberals and Nationals ran a joint ticket, and in Mining and Pastoral, they ran separately, with the Liberals attracting 18,635 of the 52,240 formal votes and the Nationals 5,087.

• Candidates of the 1996 Western Australian state election
• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1993–1996
• Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, 1996–2001
• McGinty v Western Australia