Labor's Mark McGowan with his family: he took power in a landslide.
The decision to cut a preference deal with One Nation at Saturday's state electionwas motivated by internal polling that showed fewer than 30 per cent of people were prepared to give the Barnett government their primary vote.
With both One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and the Liberals blaming the preference deal, in part, for their respective poor performances on Saturday, Senior WALiberal MathiasCormannsaid the Liberals' own internal polling had their primary vote as low as 29 per cent.
"All throughout the campaign it has hovered at the 29 per cent-to-31 per cent at State level. If we wanted to minimise losses, maximise our chances of holding onto seats, we needed to be able to source preferences and clearly, these weren't going to come from Labor and the Greens," he told the ABC's Insiders program.
"The election result last night has been a long time coming. It is not unexpected. All of the published and internal polling indicated that this was the way it was going to go.
"As far as the preference deal is concerned, the Liberal Party's consideration was looking at our primary vote long before the campaign got underway, long before any preference arrangements were entered into."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull did not rule outfuture deals with One Nation, saying that would be decided closer to the election. He said the WA result was driven overwhelmingly by state issues and the "it's time" factor.
But Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce called the deal "a mistake" because it confused voters of both parties, as well as the Nationals. One Nationhad had " a shocker" and the Liberals a "bad day at the office".
"It's in the Liberal Party'sinterestto be close to the National Party and it's in the National Party's interest to be close to Liberal Party and it is in bothinterestsnot to be close to anybody else," Mr Joyce said.
On Saturday, Labor's Mark McGowan was swept to power on the back of a massive landslide driven primarily by the collapse of the WA mining-based economy and the longevity of a reform-shy government.
As of the latest count, the Liberals had suffered a primary swing against them of 15.7 per cent for a primary vote of 31.4 per cent. Most of it went to Labor which received 9.7 per cent primary swing.
The Greens held at 8.5 per cent, the Nationals,who are not in Coalition with the Liberals, stayed relatively steady at 5.4 per cent while One Nation underperformed with just 4.7 per cent.
This was not enough for a lower house seat and may only see it gain one Upper House seat when it was confident of up to five seats and the balance of power.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson blamed the preference deal "definitely damaged us" because to voters, it looked as though One Nation was betraying its anti-establishment platform by supporting the government.
"We are going to really have to have a good look at this," she said of cutting future deals with the conservatives in this year's Queensland state election or the next federal election.
She said the Liberals should have replaced Mr Barnett before the election because he had become the political equivalent of "sour milk".
Senator Cormann said it was to early to speculate on future dealings with One Nation.
"The circumstances at a federal level is very different. We are in a strong and united Coalition with the National Party at the federal level.
"The National Party in WA took the view that they didn't want to be in Coalition with us, they wanted to be more independent and only enter into an alliance," he said.
"These are judgements that will be made at the right time. We will review all aspects of the campaign and the ultimate outcome and relevant judgements will be made at the right time."
The deal, in which the Liberals referenced One Nation in the Upper House in return for lower house support, angered Oe Nation voters and moderate LIberals.
In declaring victory, Mr McGowan said the Liberals had paid a price.
"Today, we showed we are a State of decency and intelligence, not a State of stupidity and ignorance," he said.
Labor leader Bill Shorten claimed the recent decision to cut penalty rates had contributed to the result. He called the One Nation deal the "ultimate exploding cigar".
Senator Cormann said the government had give WA $1 billion in extra grants but to change the whole formula would create problems elsewhere because another state would lose out.
"In relation to GST sharing arrangements, we did as much as we could in an appropriate fashion, bearing in mind that a national Government has the responsibility to act in the national interests."
He played down its impact on the result.
"This was a big issue in the lead-up to the last federal election and we won 11 out of 16 seats (inWA), 54.7 per cent of the two party preferred," he said.
"This is an issue in WA, no doubt about it. By the same token, we have to be realistic on what a national Government can do in relation to these sorts of issues and the timetable is determined by what happens with the GST sharing arrangements moving forward."
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WA election: Liberals defend One Nation deal despite rout - The Australian Financial Review