Landslide win for Labor in Western Australia elections

Canberra

WESTERN Australia elected a new government in a landslide victory for the Labor party, as voters swept aside a Liberal-National coalition blamed for squandering the state's once-in-a-century resources boom and racking up record debt.

Labor leader Mark McGowan, 49, replaces 66-year-old Premier Colin Barnett, inheriting a state economy weighed down by the nation's highest jobless rate and stuttering growth.

"I won't let you down," Mr McGowan told supporters on Saturday in his victory speech. "Today, West Australians voted for hope and opportunity over desperation and division."

Labor, which has pledged to create 50,000 jobs and boost public transport and services, faces a daunting task in turning around the economy of the resources-rich state that's borne the brunt of a downturn in commodity prices. Mr McGowan has said erasing a debt mountain - forecast to reach A$33.8 billion (S$36 billion) in June and rise 13 per cent next year - will take decades, an…