2018 Darling Range state by-election

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The 2018 Darling Range by-election was held on 23 June 2018 for Western Australia’s Legislative Assembly seat of Darling Range. It followed the resignation of Liberal MP Barry Urban on 8 May. Urban had been elected as a Labor candidate in the 2017 landslide but moved to the crossbench and faced a recommendation for expulsion over contempt of parliament; he resigned after the committee’s report.

Labor initially nominated Colleen Yates, but she withdrew on 24 May after it emerged she had claimed degrees she did not have on LinkedIn.

The Liberal candidate Alyssa Hayden won the by-election, receiving 8,418 votes (34.5%), while Labor’s Tania Lawrence received 7,809 votes (32.0%). On a two-party basis, Hayden led 53.5% to 46.5% for Lawrence, a swing of 9.3 percentage points to the Liberals. The result marked a return of the seat to the Liberals, after Labor’s 2017 win—the first time Labor had won Darling Range in its 64-year history. The ABC’s Antony Green called the result 92 minutes after polls closed.