'Orange tsunami' in WA Labor heartland sends shock wave around country

Almost no matter the result in the Labor heartland of Secret Harbour, in Perth's south, One Nation was going to be able to claim the result of yesterday's by-election as a win.

So much so the party began at their election-night event within 15 minutes of polls closing, before a single vote had been reported.

By the time early results started trickling through, the room was electric. The DJ was straight to his victory playlist.

Queen's We Are The Champions, followed by Tina Turner's The Best, had an already amped-up crowd turned up to 11.

At that stage, it was far too early to call the seat. But for the party to have received more than a third of the primary vote would have been victory enough regardless of the final outcome.

Within a few hours though, it was clear Labor heartland had turned orange, with One Nation's Luke Herdegen prevailing.

The win will be seen as a big boost to the minor party, making the point it can threaten not just Liberal seats but Labor ones too.

Working-class families frustrated with cost-of-living and housing pressures, and feeling ignored by governments, would no longer automatically switch from Labor to Liberal.

"The people of Secret Harbour have sent a message, a message that will send shock waves across the entire country," One Nation's first lower house MP in WA, Luke Herdegen, told his supporters.

The party's WA leader, Rod Caddies, said it proved One Nation offered a "genuine alternative" to Labor and the Liberals and that the two-party system was "dead".

Tempering the win is the fact by-elections — especially ones that don't change who is in government — can produce strange results that don't necessarily translate to general elections.

Voters can, for example, be much more concerned about specific local issues (how often red bins are collected, in this case) than they otherwise might.

Labor had also committed to following through on all of its campaign promises regardless of who won the seat, which may have also made people more comfortable trying something new with their vote.

It means the result won't necessarily translate directly to upcoming elections in Victoria and New South Wales, where One Nation is expected to play a big part.