McGowan romps home for sixth term

Mark McGowan’s re-election as Member for Rockingham at the sixth time of asking was a formality at the weekend, with the Premier-elect polling more than 62 per cent of the primary vote.

Labor has held the seat of Rockingham since its creation in 1974, with Mr McGowan succeeding Mike Barnett in 1996.

On Monday at midday and with 70.4 per cent of the votes counted, Mr McGowan had received 11,330 of the 18,968 primary votes.

In a two-party preference situation, he held 73.93 per cent of the vote — considerably more than the 26.07 per cent of Liberals candidate Wendy Baumann.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation candidate James O’Malley was third at the time of writing, winning the primary vote of 1540 people at the polls.

He was closely followed by James Mumme of the Greens Party who had the backing of 1301 voters.

Independent Craig Buchanan, Sylvia Stonehouse of the Australian Christians and Mark Charles of the Micro Business Party accounted for less than 5 per cent of the votes combined.

Mr McGowan’s funding pledges for Rockingham will benefit the sporting community and residents at large if followed through.

Labor has committed $373,000 for the Mike Barnett Sporting Complex, with the basketball courts to be resurfaced and an electronic scoreboard to be installed.

Other pledges included funding for the Rockingham Rams Football Club and the Rockingham Tennis Club.