In this federal election, marginal WA seats have put the state firmly on the campaign radar

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For years, West Australians complained that their state had been forgotten, treated as little more than an afterthought by the nation's decision–makers in Canberra.

But with billions of dollars in funding commitments from both major parties already locked in, WA voters are feeling the love ahead of the federal election.

Labor's Bill Shorten has boasted of making dozens of trips west during his time as Opposition Leader, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison headed across the Nullarbor twice last month.

It's a sign that both parties know there are key seats on the line in WA.

So what will be the big issues that will decide the result in the west?

And which seats are shaping up as the key WA battlegrounds ahead of election day?

Porter's fight for his political life

Christian Porter is one of the rising stars of the Coalition, having gone from backbencher to Attorney-General in the space of just 36 months.

Mr Porter has become one of the Liberal Party's most senior figures in his six years in Federal Parliament, but he's now fighting for his political life in his marginal seat to the north-east of Perth.

The 48-year-old holds Pearce by just 3.6 per cent and Labor believes the seat is in play, selecting former police officer Kim Travers as its candidate and promising big money for the area — including $850 million for the Ellenbrook train line.

Mr Porter has often been touted as a future prime minister and the Liberals are preparing to fight hard to save an MP they see as crucial to the party's future.

How much ground can Labor claw back?

It is not just Pearce where the Liberals are facing a fight — that is just one of five seats Labor has its eye on ahead of polling day.

Labor is confident of winning Hasluck, which is held by Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt by a 2.1 per cent margin, while Swan (3.6 per cent), Stirling (6.1 per cent) and Andrew Hastie's outer-suburban seat of Canning (6.8 per cent) are the others seen as vulnerable.

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Cowan, held by Labor on a wafer-thin margin of 0.7 per cent, is the state's most marginal seat, but the party is confident high-profile incumbent Anne Aly will hold on and likely increase her margin.

If Labor picks up the seats it is targeting, the party's WA performance will be a far cry from the result of recent elections.

Labor won just three of 15 seats in the west in 2013, and five of 16 three years later.

With their eyes on a handful of seats, unions and other progressive movements are pushing extra resources to WA for the campaign, which is expected to be fierce.

Both major parties are privately expecting a swing towards Labor in WA and most Liberals concede holding all five of those seats most at risk is unlikely, but the Government will be fighting hard to minimise any damage.

The fight to replace Julie Bishop

Perth's western suburbs are Liberal heartland and in normal circumstances the Government would not face any serious threat in the blue-ribbon seat of Curtin.

Its 20.7 per cent margin makes it the second-safest Liberal seat in the country, but the retirement of Julie Bishop could throw a spanner into the works.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Julie Bishop resigns from Parliament (ABC News)

After a bitter preselection battle, the local branch ignored Ms Bishop's plea to select a moderate and instead installed former Notre Dame University vice-chancellor Celia Hammond as the Liberal candidate.

Ms Hammond has previously downplayed the effect of humans on climate change, decried the "militant feminist movement" and said she had never met a woman who had a casual sexual encounter who wasn't "searching for something more".

The departure of Ms Bishop has prompted some Liberals to worry the seat could be vulnerable to a strong independent candidate, and businesswoman Louise Stewart has entered the contest.

Labor tried to influence the race and force the Liberals to pour scarce resources into the Curtin fight by selecting Melissa Parke, a former minister and Fremantle MP, as its candidate.

But that effort spectacularly collapsed within days, with Ms Parke quitting as the candidate amid controversy over remarks she made about Israel.

The legacy of Malcolm Turnbull's ousting

This is one of the issues that may define the election campaign nationally, but the way the overthrow of Malcolm Turnbull played out could have a particular impact in the west.

Ms Bishop's tilt for the leadership fell well short, in part because of a lack of support from her fellow West Australian Liberals, many of whom flocked to challenger Peter Dutton.

Senior WA Liberals Mathias Cormann and Michaelia Cash played a key role in Mr Turnbull's downfall when they withdrew support for him after the first of two leadership spills.

The key role of prominent WA Liberals in Mr Turnbull's ouster has caused some concerns within the party about how that will play with voters in the west.

After Mr Morrison emerged as Prime Minister he visited WA three times and declared he had a proven track record of delivering for the state.

As treasurer, Mr Morrison and Senator Cormann trumpeted their brokering of a GST deal that saw billions of dollars promised for WA, to rectify the system of distributing the tax among the states which has for years seen WA's share of the tax fall way short.

It neutralised a longstanding grievance and will no doubt form a key plank of the Coalition's re-election pitch to West Australians.

The cash will keep flowing to the west

Well before the election campaign got underway, the Liberals and Labor began trying to one-up each other on spending promises for WA.

Whichever party wins the election, WA will be the recipient of government spending — the Coalition's pre-election budget made $1.6 billion in new infrastructure funding promises, while Mr Shorten has also promised big bucks on his regular visits to the west.

But those only represent the pre-election commitments. Now that the campaign itself is underway, the WA Government is hoping there will be plenty more to come.

"The budget highlighted the fact that WA is in play, and I hope and expect to see more of this over the election campaign," WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt said last week.

What about the minor parties?

The west has recently been relatively strong territory for One Nation, with Pauline Hanson's party winning a WA Senate spot in 2016 and then snagging three Upper House positions at the 2017 state election.

But if the party is going to retain its sole Senate spot, it will need to boost its support significantly from the 4 per cent of the vote it secured three years ago.

One of the Greens' two WA senators, Jordon Steele-John, is also up for re-election.

A repeat of the 10.5 per cent of the vote the Greens got in 2016 would likely be enough for his spot to be retained.

Topics: state-parliament, federal-election, federal-government, states-and-territories, government-and-politics, perth-6000, wa, australia