New WA electoral commissioner appointed

The man who took over the WA Electoral Commission in the wake of the WA election debacle has been given the gig permanently after the Cook government decided against advertising the role.

Electoral Affairs Minister David Michael announced current acting commissioner Dennis O’Reilly would become the permanent commissioner when his predecessor Robert Kennedy’s resignation takes effect next month.

Electoral Affairs Minister David Michael.Credit: 9News Perth

O’Reilly took over from Kennedy, who went on extended leave a few days after the March state election, which was riddled with issues, including huge waits at polling booths, a lack of ballot papers and understaffing issues.

Kennedy tendered his resignation earlier this month and the Cook government decided against advertising broadly for the role with Michael declaring he was confident in O’Reilly’s ability to steer the beleaguered organisation alongside Rebecca Hamilton who was appointed permanent deputy.

“They have done a very, very good job at the commission so far so I’m very confident that they’ll make the changes required of the commission to deliver the local government elections coming up, but also to get prepared for the 2029 state election,” he said.

Opposition electoral affairs spokesman Shane Love supported O’Reilly and Hamilton’s appointments but was angry at the consultation afforded opposition parties on their selection and the fact the government did not advertise broadly for the roles to ensure they got the best people with election experience.

“The [Nationals, Liberals and Greens] do not support making permanent appointments to these offices until there has been a comprehensive, robust and merit-based selection process. This has not occurred,” he said.

“In light of the failures exposed during the 2025 State Election, the appointment of the new Electoral Commissioner was an important moment to reset and restore public confidence in the Electoral Commission.

“There are no scheduled elections in the coming year, which means there is ample time to undertake a proper, open and transparent recruitment process, including advertising the position nationally and selecting the best candidate on merit.”

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Michael said a full recruitment process could take 12 months and the commission needed stable leadership now.

“We thought that the acting commissioner and acting deputy commissioner have already done a good job in getting themselves embedded in the commission, bringing up that staff morale, and also they have some other work on foot in terms of looking at the structure of the commission,” he said.

O’Reilly is a long time public servant who most recently was deputy director general of strategy and performance at the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.

Hamilton has spent 20 years in the public service.

Their respective contracts last until 2030.

The issues with the March election became the subject of an inquiry by former governor Malcolm McCusker, which found the election was underfunded and staffing on the day was “completely inadequate”, with some voters waiting as long as three hours at polling booths, while others could not vote at all as ballot papers ran out.

Kennedy went on leave just days after the election and has not made a public appearance since.

His future became the talk of parliament in its final weeks.

A motion brought forward by Nationals leader Shane Love to fire him was set to be debated before he tendered his resignation at the eleventh hour with the governor.

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