Secret Harbour - Our View from the Round House Wednesday Special with Martin Drum

Last night, well before the counting was over, go-to Fremantle Shipping News political pundit, Professor Martin Drum of Notre Dame University here in Fremantle, called the by-election result in favour of One Nation candidate Luke Herdegen.

Luke Herdegen. Source One Nation

But well before that, in his regular Friday political podcast View from the Round House with Martin Drum, the Prof confidently predicted Herdegen would win. No ifs or buts.

*Professor Martin Drum, expanding on an issue during the recording of View from the Round House*

However you look at it, One Nation’s Secret Harbour victory is momentous.

For a start, Secret Harbour has delivered one of the most astonishing by‑election results in recent WA political history – a 30‑plus per cent swing that flipped an 11% Labor seat and handed One Nation its first ever lower‑house win in the state.

To fully appreciate how momentous this result is, on Wednesday the Shipping News will post a special edition of View from the Round House with Martin Drum discussing the apparent ‘Orange tsunami’ sweeping Australian politics.

In the special View, our editor, Michael Barker, will quiz the Prof about just how Secret Harbour happened:

*Why voters abandoned a long‑held Labor stronghold;

*How the Liberal Party also appears in terminal decline;

*Whether sentiment politics is overtaking policy detail;

*How an energetic but little known outsider could beat an experienced Labor candidate; and

*What this shock result has to say about voter boredom, anti‑establishment mood, and the growing volatility of outer‑metro WA seats, not to mention the implications for all state, territory and national electorates around the country and the decline of the major party system;

*When the Prof predicted this One Nation boil-over in Friday’s View podcast, he also suggested it would be unlikely to happen in a western suburbs seat like Cottesloe. Does he still hold to that observation?

The View podcast is a lively, forensic, and occasionally cheeky conversation about the forces reshaping politics in places like Secret Harbour – and what the major parties should be learning from it.

Catch the full View from the Round House with Martin Drum – Secret Harbour By‑Election Special on FSN this Wednesday.

*By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping News

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