As WA's election day nears, the campaign has grown increasingly bumpy for both Labor and the Liberals with some unwanted distractions.
With the big splashy promises already made to the hundreds of thousands of people who cast their vote early, each party has spent the final week on the attack — as well as defending their weak spots.
Promising the world
Keeping the lights on and ensuring timely medical care are the bare basics for any government — but Labor's struggled on both fronts.
The ABC's full coverage of the 2025 WA state election
Photo shows Libby Mettam, Roger Cook, Shane Love
The week was off to a bad start when 40,000 homes and businesses in Perth were left without power after a light summer drizzle triggered a spate of pole top fires.
It was quickly leapt on by the Liberals, with leader Libby Mettam resorting to her well-worn line it was yet another sign Labor "have their priorities all wrong and are failing the basics".
"Is the [Liberal] plan to ensure there would no pole top fires under a Liberal government?" a journalist asked.
"Absolutely. It is about maintenance, it's about doing your job in government," Mettam responded.
It would be a difficult promise to keep to say the least.
WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam delivered the party's costings on Thursday. (ABC News: Andrew O'Connor)
Those kinds of attacks are easy to launch from opposition, much like Cook's criticisms of 1,000 hours of ambulance ramping in a month on the Barnett government watch being a "crisis".
Ramping figures have now soared past that, sitting at 5,424 hours in January and 4,828 in February — the highest for each month on record.
It's given Mettam the perfect opportunity to talk up one of her stronger spots in health and the party's solutions, including funding privately-run urgent care clinics — which she insists will be able to divert patients from hospitals from day one.
Bringing the receipts
Another basic for all governments — although much less interesting for most people — is how to pay for their promises.
"I have had thousands of conversations in the last eight days and thousands more before that — not a single person has raised it with me," star Liberal candidate Basil Zempilas declared during a fiery ABC radio debate on Thursday morning.
Basil Zempilas said costings were not a priority for voters during a debate on ABC Radio Perth. (ABC News: Emma Wynne)
That's probably because, for the last few years, hundreds of billions of dollars have flowed into the state, including whopping federal GST payments and handsome mining royalties.
As the Liberals have often pointed out, those two sources handed Roger Cook and his successor Mark McGowan about $115 billion over the last two terms of government — about half of what Colin Barnett got.
For Labor, the big question is whether it's spending too much as uncertain economic clouds brew on the horizon.
To keep up with its spending decisions, debt is due to grow to $41 billion by mid-2028 — a level Labor was critical of when the Liberals were last in power.
Rita Saffioti at a manufacturing press conference on the campaign trail. (ABC News: Jake Sturmer)
"Our debt is still lower than they had forecast, and we've delivered record infrastructure," Treasurer Rita Saffioti said on Wednesday.
But Liberal shadow treasurer Steve Martin said Labor had been "lazy when it comes to controlling spending".
He's outlined plans to save money by not expanding the ferry network as promised by Labor, scrapping unspent and unassigned Metronet money, and cutting consultants and advertising by $30 million.
Shadow Treasurer Steve Martin releases the WA Liberal party's costings on Thursday. (ABC News: Andrew O'Connor)
There’s been plenty of the usual noise about what might have been left out of the estimates, and who’s crunched the numbers.
The Liberals used experienced public servant Peter Conran, who worked under both John Howard and Colin Barnett, who they described as a "man of vast experience", but who Labor characterised as a "Liberal party mate".
At the end of the day though, the Liberals' costings — released after weeks of Labor asking for them — puts debt at a similar level at a similar time, with healthy surpluses still as far as the eye can see.
An unlikely lightning rod
One issue Zempilas tried to say voters were especially concerned about was Labor's plans to build a motorsport precinct at Burswood Park.
The plan for the $217 million project includes roads which could be converted into racetracks, a function centre and an outdoor music amphitheatre.
But it's been met with opposition from the local council and residents who are worried about the impact it will have.
It's another easy point of attack for the Liberals, with Zempilas dubbing it "Rita's racetrack".
"A $220 million extravagance that nobody wants or needs in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis," Zempilas said.
But Cook and his team have continued to stand by the project, describing it as an important investment for the future of the state.
With the scale of early voting, these final week stumbles might not have as big an effect as they would have in previous years.
But even with the election result as close to certain as you can get, politics is never a straightforward game.
Check out our 2025 WA state election page for all of the ABC's coverage.
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