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Conflict of interest is drowning the Labor Party’s third Western Australian election win in a sea of protest.

Voters are demanding answers after it was revealed that staffing for the WA election last weekend was outsourced to a foreign Labor Party donor.

As reported by The West Australian, Labor gave Australian-run PersolKelly – a Japanese-owned company – $86 million to staff the 2025 and 2029 state elections.

Spotlighting the problem, The West Australian and WAToday said the recruitment agency’s subsidiary, Programmed, donated $67,000 to WA Labor.

Serious Issues at Polling Places

Other than the apparent conflict of interest, complaints from voters about PersolKelly’s sloppy service are only adding to Labor Premier Roger Cook’s woes.

“Polling places ran out of ballots, wait times were unusually long, and some voters said they were turned away”, the ABC said.

Unbothered by what has all the earmarks of election interference, Cook dismissed the urgency of concerned voters.

He opined that Labor would run an “independent investigation, at a later date, once all the votes had been tallied.”

State opposition leader, WA Nationals MP, Shane Love, protested the response, implying that Labor couldn’t be trusted.

Love said he’s written to the Corruption and Crime Commission to investigate Labor’s connection to PersolKelly and its role in the re-election of the regime.

“Western Australians deserve an Independent Parliamentary Inquiry into the conduct of the 2025 State Election”, Love asserted on Facebook.

“The decision to outsource to PersolKelly sits at the heart of this chaos, and at worst, risks being seen as a politically corrupt arrangement that has compromised the integrity of our democracy.”

“This election”, he said, “has been plagued by failings.”

“Ballot shortages, postal delays, missing mobile polling, and widespread voter frustration.”

“It is fundamental to our democracy that people have confidence in the electoral process.”

WA Nationals MP, & opposition leader Shane Love doesn’t trust WA Labor to investigate itself over potential election interference. Rightly so.

ICYMI: Staffing for the gaff tape and rubber bands, WA election was outsourced to a non-neutral political entity that donated over $60k… pic.twitter.com/6fC5c0ejd7

— Rod Lampard (@rod_lampard) March 13, 2025

‘I am Very Concerned’: FamilyVoice Australia’s WA Director

For further context, FamilyVoice Australia’s WA Director, Darryl Budge, told The Daily Declaration,

“I am very concerned that almost all WAEC staff advised voters, ‘you can just number 1 above the line or 20 below the line’”.

“I view this as instructions that suppress democratic participation”, Budge explained, adding, “this discourages people from preferencing all parties in full.”

“This is another reason the Labor hire firm being appointed by Labor was a miscarriage of electoral fairness for WA voters.”

“The public got low-quality information at the polling booth.”

In a press release published yesterday, Budge called for a Royal Commission into WA’s election chaos.

The government must “appoint a Royal Commission to investigate why the State Electoral Commission found itself outsourcing the running of the recent election”, he remarked.

Donations from foreign entities, paid to run elections, “Completely contradict the historic operation of elections by a neutral and independent branch of the public service”, he stated.

Drawing on the public’s distaste of foreign ownership, Budge said, “We pride ourselves on political neutrality when it comes to elections.”

“So, we must have a home-grown electoral commission which itself recruits and trains personnel.”

Sharing WA opposition leader Shane Love’s doubts about a Labor-led inquiry, Budge concluded,

“Only a royal commission can properly assess why the Commission found itself outsourcing the election, what went wrong and why.”

‘Integrity Issue’: Australian Christians Party

The Australian Christians Party (AC) backed the LNP and FamilyVoice’s call for a robust federal inquiry, calling the “revelations deeply concerning.”

“This raises serious questions about the integrity and independence of our electoral process”, they posted on Facebook.

“Was PersolKelly hired based on merit, or was its donor relationship with Labor a factor? The public deserves full transparency.”

Speaking with The Daily Declaration, AC’s Maryka Groenewald, said,

“Cracks in the WA election process started appearing last year when there were issues locking in early voting locations.”

“It seemed that planning started way too late.”

“There were also numerous concerns with some of the early voting locations, which were simply not fit for purpose!” Groenewald explained.

“The fact”, she added, “that you had the company conducting the elections donate to the Labor Party is even more troubling!”

Australian Christians Party Secures Upper House Election

Maryka Groenewald is the stand-out silver lining in the WA election.

Becoming AC’s first elected representative, Groenewald has put the party on the map.

Her election to WA’s legislative council is a testimony to the adage that persistence pays off.

Groenewald’s win comes after 10 years of campaigning and offers a significant contrast to the Greens, who now hold the balance of power.

The apparent mishandling of the WA election is made worse by the winners’ apparent keenness to dismiss concerns as losers playing a “blame game”.

So far, very few media outlets on the east coast have picked up the potential Watergate-level scandal.

This may change as voter outrage outpaces Labor’s noisy victory laps.

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Photo credit: DJ Paine on Unsplash.