That's pretty out there. Has that sort of division happened before? I suppose it doesn't make much difference in practice compared to a normal majority (or are there laws that require a supermajority in WA?), but it does certainly look interesting. And backbenchers can forget about influencing the party agenda.
How progressive is WA in terms fo policy btw? I don't know how much autonomy Australian states and territories have, but this should allow Labour to really move things forward.
It's a historic win. I don't think it's ever been this lopsided. It put it in perspective, in the space of 2x state elections, over 25% of the population moved away from making the conservatives their "primary" vote and switched to labor. Because of the win, McGowan (leader) has come out heavy on "progressive centrism". However is policies are more schools, more hospitals, slashing public transport fees, more spending on green technology, focus on local jobs etc etc.
State and territory parliaments make laws that are enforced within their state or territory. By defining federal powers, the Australian Constitution reserved—left—most other law-making powers to the states. These are called residual powers. As a rule, if it is not listed in sections 51 and 52 of the Constitution, it is an area of state responsibility. State laws relate to matters that are primarily of state interest such as:
- schools
- hospitals
- roads and railways
- public transport
- utilities such as electricity and water supply
- mining
- agriculture
- forests
- community services
- consumer affairs
- police
- prisons
- ambulance services
Section 122 of the Constitution allows the Parliament to override a territory law at any time. The federal Parliament has only used its power under section 122 a few times and only in cases where the territory law has created much debate or controversy within the Australian community.
https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-p...ree-levels-of-government-governing-australia/
The biggest issue for labor in policy terms has been trying to win the Legislative Council because of a ridiculous quota system heavily favouring regional and preference deals that help candidates looking for their 5 minutes of fame. It's also being predicted that Labor will win a heavy majority in the LC to basically mean they have a double majority over the government.
What this also means is that the conservative party has also officially lost their "opposition" status and how lost access to parliamentary resources like money for staff that would come from the parliament. The conservative party has essentially been wiped out in WA for the next 10-15 years.
What do those numbers mean exactly? Is the power of that branch as firmly ensconced in Labor’s hands as it appears, almost virtually? Or are there mitigating factors?
Yes, the WA Labor party now has a upper and lower house majority over the parliament.
So our Legislative Assembly in WA is essentially the lower house, where legislation is initiated by a state government. So yes, this win is the equivalent of democrats winning 387 seats in the House (just on a state level)
Furthermore, we have a Legislative Council which is essentially for 'legislative review" there are 36 seats, Labor is predicted to win 23 seats. So in US terms, would be the equivalent of democrats holding a 63-37 majority in the senate.
No mitigating factors, the WA conservative press are running newspaper headlines of "TOTAL CONTROL" and some of their conservative TV lunatics are calling us the North Korea of Australia. It's essentially a government with a heavy government majority.
Your system sounds pretty much exactly like Canada - except we still have winner-takes-all elections everywhere, an unelected upper house federally, and no upper house anywhere provincially or territorially. So you're ahead of us. 
