Update on the Western Australia election

After starting discussion of the WA election in context of the NSW debacle I thought I'd better see this through.

Where are we up to?

With Parliament hung, the three parties continue to horse-trade terms under which they'd form a coalition government. What's made it particularly difficult is the personal acrimony in WA between the Liberals (the main right-wing party) and the Nationals (a centre-right party originally known as the Country Party and more popular in rural constituencies). They have traditionally united in such circumstances (and indeed have often stood on the same ticket).

Labor have been reaching out to the Nationals for a coalition, though this is starting to look less likely (see here). A consequence of which is that the Labor leader and current Premier Alan Carpenter is about to be dumped. An amusing satire on how he got it all wrong by calling the early election he's now lost to be found here in today's The Australian newspaper.