28 Facts About Zak Kirkup

Zak Richard Francis Kirkup was born on 23 February 1987 and is an Australian former politician.

Zak Kirkup was a member of the Western Australian Liberal Party, and served as a member for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the electoral district of Dawesville from 2017 to 2021.

In November 2020, Kirkup was elected as the leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party and became Leader of the Opposition.

Zak Kirkup led the party into the 2021 state election, in which they were defeated in a wipeout loss.

Zak Kirkup made the unprecedented decision to concede defeat two weeks prior to the election taking place.

Zak Kirkup lost his own seat of Dawesville to Labor's Lisa Munday, becoming the first major party leader in Western Australia to lose his seat in 88 years.

Shortly after the election, Zak Kirkup announced his resignation from politics.

Zak Kirkup was born in Perth to Penni Hulston and Rob Zak Kirkup.

Zak Kirkup's mother was an immigrant from New Zealand, while his father was Australian.

Zak Kirkup has one half-sister, who was born when his mother was 17 and given up for adoption.

Zak Kirkup grew up in the eastern suburbs around Midland.

Zak Kirkup attended Woodlupine Primary School in Forrestfield and Governor Stirling Senior High School in Woodbridge.

Zak Kirkup worked as a research assistant to Matt Birney.

Zak Kirkup later worked in the office of Senator Judith Adams, as a campaign officer at the 2007 federal election, as deputy state director of campaigns, and in the office of Premier Colin Barnett as an adviser on environmental issues.

In 2012, Zak Kirkup was named and subsequently cleared in a Public Sector Commission investigation into alleged breaches of the code of ethics that binds WA ministerial staff.

Zak Kirkup was drinking with a colleague from Barnett's office who falsely informed journalists that then opposition leader Mark McGowan was at the same pub.

Zak Kirkup denied any knowledge of his colleague's actions, which the Commission accepted.

Zak Kirkup won the seat by only 343 votes at the 2017 election, narrowly avoiding becoming a victim of the significant state-wide swing to the Labor Party.

Zak Kirkup was one of only thirteen Liberals in the parliament and one of only four in seats outside the metropolitan area.

In 2020, Zak Kirkup was criticised for his remarks on Clive Palmer's defamation suit against Premier Mark McGowan.

At the resulting leadership election, Zak Kirkup was elected leader of the Liberal Party unopposed.

On 25 February 2021,16 days prior to the 2021 Western Australian state election, Zak Kirkup admitted he did not expect the Liberal Party to win the election.

Zak Kirkup said that his main priority was ensuring the Liberals would be able to form a credible opposition, arguing that a Liberal party room reduced to the single digits would be in no position to stop Labor if it went "too far".

At the election, amid a massive Labor wave that swept through Western Australia, Zak Kirkup was heavily defeated by Labor challenger Lisa Munday, suffering a swing of over 14 percent.

Since the 2021 election, Zak Kirkup has moved to Subiaco, Western Australia.

Zak Kirkup later became the business editor of the National Indigenous Times.

Zak Kirkup married in February 2018, but separated from his wife in October 2019.

In December 2020, Zak Kirkup revealed that he had been diagnosed with depression during the previous summer and had subsequently undergone treatment.