He is expected to be voted in to the position at this morning's caucus meeting after Eric Ripper last week announced he would step down.

Yesterday, while defending his announcement of a policy idea, he said he did not want to speculate on policies the WA Labor Party would take with them to the next election but said as leader he had the right to talk about important issues.

"I'll consult as much as I possibly can, but at times, leaders have to make calls, and leaders that have gone before me have, Mr Barnett does that, Prime Minister Gillard does that, if necessary, I'll do that," he said.

Mr McGowan has started on the difficult task of trying to win public support.

"I have to broaden my appeal, I have to show my true personality, I want to be constructive and friendly and have a new fresh approach to the position," he said.

Mr McGowan said despite the fact that he would criticise people over their performance or policies, he was not interested in having slanging matches with Government ministers.

He admitted it would take some time to properly settle into the new role.

"You fly by the seat of the pants when you are in my position at the moment and I'm trying not to get ahead of myself," Mr McGowan said.

He said the shadow cabinet would be decided this morning following the leadership vote.

"But I expect that the allocation of portfolios, I wouldn't be able to get to doing that until perhaps Friday."

He would not be drawn on whether he expected any major changes to be made.

Other than the issue raised yesterday, restricting high powered cars to drivers over the age of 21, Mr McGowan would not talk about policies.

"I'm not going to speculate on policy issues, all will be revealed on policies in due course," he said.