BACK FOR MORE: WA Labor Leader Mark McGowan says he is up for the challenge to continue leading the party. Picture: Stewart Allen Source: PerthNow
WA Labor leader Mark McGowan has been re-elected unopposed as the party's leader following an embarrassing election defeat last month.
Mr McGowan was re-elected the leader at a caucus meeting today where there were no challenges to any of the leadership team.
WA Labor will return to the state parliament next week with just 21 seats opposite a strengthened Liberal/National coalition.
Deputy leader Roger Cook, Labor leader in the Legislative Council Sue Ellery and deputy leader in the Legislative Council Kate Doust were also endorsed on Tuesday.
Mr McGowan said he was looking forward to leading the party to the 2017 election.
``The next four years will present a challenging course for our team,'' he said.
``But we have the energy, experience and enthusiasm to work together to meet these challenges.''
WA Labor had a stable team that was ready to present an alternative government, Mr McGowan said.
Earlier today, three weeks after the election thrashing, 45-year-old Mr McGowan said the campaign before the March 9 poll had been gruelling.
``I worked as hard as I could and at the end of it I have to say I was pretty tired, which is why I took a little bit of time off,'' Mr McGowan said.
``It was hard, it was demanding, but it was a good experience, and there has been a lot of positive feeling on what we tried to achieve.''
Since the defeat, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has visited the state without meeting with Mr McGowan. But he blames the Liberal advertising dollar and dirty tricks for the election outcome, rather than dissatisfaction with the Labor brand.
``In the last couple of weeks we did suffer from a couple of things - one was the premier going out and saying he was not sick, which somehow implied that I said he was,'' Mr McGowan told ABC radio.
``And the Liberal Party had an enormous amount they spent on advertising, and what can't be forgotten is they spent $2 million of taxpayers' money on advertising in the lead-up to the election campaign with their ... ads.
``But we need to know that the second term of a government is always more difficult than the first, and there is a lot of material there for us to point out their flaws and deficiencies.''
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