Member for Riverton and former State Treasurer Mike Nahan said he was honoured to be re-elected for a third time after a statewide swing against the Liberal Party.
Dr Nahan’s closest challenger was Labor candidate Marion Boswell who ended up with about 2000 fewer votes.
It was a much closer election result than his 2013 re-election, where he received more than 4500 votes more than his closest challenger.
Despite the drop Dr Nahan’s win margin was still the second highest in the electorate’s recent history.
He blamed Colin Barnett’s preference deal with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party for the closer result this time around.
“The One Nation deal hurt as it was inconsistent with Liberal values,” he said.
“It is also inconsistent with my own values and given the cultural diversity in the Riverton electorate it was a negative in this election.”
Dr Nahan said he would continue to work for Riverton under a Labor government and called on the new government for alternative plans to be made if it went through with scrapping Roe 8.
“Labor has promised to cancel Roe 8 but they have no plan to address congestion on Leach Highway,” he said.
“If they aren’t going to build Roe 8 they must widen Shelley Bridge at the very least.”
He said he was hopeful the government would not scrap funding for upgrades to Willetton Senior High School.
