Western Australia (WA) will no longer have equal representation by region following seismic reform to the state’s Legislative Council, or upper house, despite an election promise ruling out the possibility. Previously, WA’s upper house functioned similarly to that of the federal-level upper house, with population-differing regions represented equally. Specifically, WA saw its 6 electoral regions granted 6 seats each in the Legislative Council. The new Electoral Equality Bill 2021 overhauls this entirely, amending constitutional and electoral legislation to form one state-wide region of representation for a total of 37 seats. This comes following concern from the WA Labor government that the previous state election saw vote malapportionment, where votes cast in one rural region were worth 6.22 times more than those in the metropolitan area, and with one seat elected after receiving only 98 votes. The legislation passed unimpeded in the upper house, which had previously been scrutinised following an …