Neither Labor nor the Liberals needed the bruising Secret Harbour byelection to tell them One Nation had become a major player.

But Saturday’s result in the Western Australian state seat will raise a couple of notches in the major parties’ perception of the political threat level it represents.

In particular, it will remove any Labor complacency that One Nation is just a problem for the conservatives – not that the more astute in Labor’s ranks believed this.

And the WA result increases further the stakes in the Victorian state election in November.

That nearly four-in-10 Secret Harbour voters gave the insurgent party its first preference vote, in a field of 16, is extraordinary in itself.

A primary vote of almost 40 per cent is nostalgia territory for the big parties these days. Labor attracted just under one-in-four primary votes in this previously solid ALP seat. The Liberals fell well short of winning one in five of the primary votes.

Sure, it was a state byelection, and had a mix of issues – state and local, as well as federal.

But the national messages are clear. One Nation is on its way potentially to becoming the unofficial opposition. And, having cut a swathe through the conservative side of politics, the party is – again – potentially a serious worry in Labor’s outer suburban seats.

Secret Harbour is the first seat One Nation has won from Labor since the 1998 Queensland state election.

It’s notable that a vulnerability in Labor heartland seats was picked up in the party’s review of the 2022 federal election campaign, when it won government.

The review, chaired by former minister Greg Combet........

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