Secret Harbour by-election live: Roger Cook admits 'the fight of our lives' as early voting opens

6:20am 19 August 2026 — Hastie shifts the blame: from someone else's problem to media friendly fire

Just eight days after dismissing the Secret Harbour by-election as someone else’s problem, federal MP Andrew Hastie has suddenly surfaced in the Sydney financial press to lecture state colleagues on how to run their campaign. Speaking to ABC Afternoon Briefing on 10 August, Hastie claimed the result was really a question for Roger Cook and Basil Zempilas to answer, distancing himself from the contest. Yet by 18 August, Hastie took to The Australian Financial Review to declare that the WA Liberals must run to win rather than help rivals, openly framing the vote as a high stakes test for state leader Basil Zempilas. Our full report sets his two positions side by side.

This sudden intervention landed on day two of early voting, right as thousands of local voters began casting their ballots. With 6,164 postal votes already dispatched to local residents, Hastie's own official website news page still fails to make a single mention of Liberal candidate Ryan Robertson or the Secret Harbour campaign. While state campaigners fight for survival on the doorstep, Hastie appears far more interested in playing internal political chess through national media than offering actual support to his team on the ground.

9:15pm 18 August 2026 — Sovereign Australia works the pre-poll queue as minor parties chase the protest vote

The unregistered Sovereign Australia Party, which is backing independent Brett Murrell, spent a second straight day at the early voting centre asking passing voters to stop and talk policy.

With a record 16 candidates on the ballot, the smaller campaigns are treating the fortnight of pre-poll as their best chance to pull votes away from the majors.

11:34am 18 August 2026 — Libertarians tip Labor to lose Secret Harbour as the early voting mood turns

Libertarians WA, whose candidate Matthew Barton drew second spot on the ballot paper, posted from the early voting centre with a prediction that sums up where the challengers think this contest is heading.

“With any luck, Labor will lose the seat of Secret Harbour,” the party wrote.

1:39am 18 August 2026 — Every campaign turns out for the first morning of pre-poll voting at Port Kennedy

Pre-poll voting opened at Port Kennedy with every campaign in the field working the same stretch of footpath, and the minor parties made the most of the first morning.

“All the stars were here this morning,” the Sovereign Australia Party posted.

3:03pm 17 August 2026 — Roger Cook admits Labor faces the fight of its life as early voting opens

Early voting opened on Monday and Premier Roger Cook marked the occasion by conceding the ground has shifted, telling The West Australian his government faces “the fight of our lives” in what has been safe Labor territory.

Labor took the seat 61.5% to 38.5% after preferences at the 2025 election and holds it by 11.5%. Cook has already found $9 million for a local TAFE upgrade since the campaign began.

11:59am 17 August 2026 — Libertarians rally behind Matthew Barton as the ground game builds at the pre-poll

Libertarians WA turned out for candidate Matthew Barton at the early voting centre and declared the contest is “heating up”. Barton sits second on the ballot paper, directly below the Liberals' Ryan Robertson.

7:24pm 16 August 2026 — Rod Caddies declares an orange wave as One Nation volunteers mass for Luke Herdegen

One Nation's WA leader Rod Caddies posted from a volunteer day for Luke Herdegen, thanking the supporters he says will be out in force for the final fortnight of the campaign.

“THE ORANGE WAVE IS COMING,” Caddies wrote.

Caddies picked Herdegen for the seat in July and has argued One Nation starts as favourites.

12:24pm 15 August 2026 — Rod Caddies demands Labor explain how its unelected candidate secured millions

Rod Caddies is pressing WA Labor over campaign material in which its candidate Georgia Tree claims she personally secured millions of dollars in taxpayer funds for the electorate, asking how someone who has never held office goes about doing that.

Caddies says the party refuses to answer a basic question about how an unelected candidate secures public money. Tree is a former adviser to federal Labor MP Madeleine King.

7:10am 15 August 2026 — WA Labor pours $300,000 into a Medicare scare campaign built on a false claim

WA Labor is spending $300,000 flooding Secret Harbour with material claiming One Nation has “always” been against Medicare. The central claim is false, and our fact check sets out why: One Nation was founded in 1997, 14 years after Medicare began, and its only health-related No votes were against Greens amendments, not against Medicare.

Bulk billing in WA sat at 74% in the March quarter, the second lowest of any state or territory bar the ACT, under Labor governments at both levels.

3:01pm 14 August 2026 — Luke Herdegen meets thousands of voters as One Nation claims the momentum is with him

One Nation's national account says Luke Herdegen has met thousands of voters over recent weeks and that “the mood for change in Western Australia is strong”. Herdegen runs Anytime Fitness gyms in the region.

The party's confidence rests on the numbers: Labor suffered a 19.8% swing here in 2025, when the statewide swing was 12.5%, and the seat produced One Nation's eighth best lower house result in the state.

6:46pm 1 August 2026 — Rod Caddies asks whether Labor is buying votes after weeks of spending pledges

Rod Caddies asked whether the run of government spending announcements in and around the electorate is a government doing its job, or a party in power using public funds as an in-kind campaign contribution.

The run includes $9 million for the local TAFE campus and $156 million for Karnup station, 13 years after it was first promised.

8:33pm 19 July 2026 — Rod Caddies says the Greens opened their campaign by calling Australia stolen land

Rod Caddies says the Greens opened their Secret Harbour campaign launch by declaring Australia is “stolen land”, and asked why WA Labor puts the party second on its how-to-vote card.

Preference flows matter in a field this size: the WA Liberals have put One Nation above Labor on their registered card.

Where this race started: the 2025 numbers that put Secret Harbour in play

Paul Papalia held Secret Harbour with 46.6% of the primary vote at the 2025 state election, down 28.5 points, and the seat swung 19.8% against him when the statewide swing was 12.5%. Labor's margin is 11.5%, and a record 16 candidates are on the ballot for the by-election his resignation triggered. The full field, ballot order and voting details are in our voter guide, and our results page will carry the live count on Saturday 29 August.