The seats to watch in the 2019 federal election: Hasluck, held by Ken Wyatt
Labor is confident it will topple Ken Wyatt in his seat of Hasluck on election day, with the Aged Care Minister’s wafer-thin margin putting him at risk.
Federal Election
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Hasluck
Incumbent: Ken Wyatt
Margin: 2 per cent
Candidates:
Liberal: Ken Wyatt
Labor: James Martin
Greens: Lee-Ann Miles
Local issues:
Jobs, cost of living, health, education, funding for local infrastructure.
LABOR SET TO POUNCE IN HASLUCK
Ken Wyatt’s wafer-thin margin in Hasluck makes him one of several government ministers in danger of losing their seats on election night.
The Aged Care Minister holds his Perth hills seat by a margin of just 2 per cent — or 3337 votes — making it an almighty challenge for him to hold on if there’s a swing against the government.
THE OTHER SEATS TO WATCH IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA:
CURTIN: Could Libs lose Julie Bishop’s seat to an independent?
PEARCE: Christian Porter in danger of losing seat
STIRLING: Keenan’s exit puts seat in play
Attorney-General Christian Porter is in a similar position in WA, as are other senior Liberal ministers including Peter Dutton and Greg Hunt.
Scott Morrison will likely need to make some significant changes to his frontbench regardless of which party wins the election.
“Wyatt has been a respected member for the Liberals but he’s on a thin 2.1 per cent margin — expect him to be defeated,” Griffith University politics expert Paul Williams told News Corp.
Veteran psephologist Malcolm Mackerras, a visiting fellow at the Australian Catholic University, said he expected the Liberals to lose Hasluck.
Labor is confident of a win.
The party will run Shire of Mundaring councillor James Martin as its candidate.
HASLUCK HOT TOPICS: INFRASTRUCTURE, RETIREE TAX AND AGED CARE
Congestion, local infrastructure, aged care funding and the ‘retiree tax’ are among the hot-button issues for Hasluck voters.
A social media analysis by Storyful Australia and News Corp shows these topics are attracting some of the biggest attention on Liberal candidate Ken Wyatt’s official Facebook page.
The Morrison government minister’s posts about $6 million in funding for a baseball park in Thornlie and $20 million for a Lloyd Street Bridge gained traction with punters online, as did his post about an aged care funding package that would deliver 120 extra residential aged places in Kalamunda and 123 new places in Gosnells.
Labor’s plan to axe tax refunds for franking credits also got a large response.
WHAT WILL SWAY THE VOTE IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Western Australia’s slow economy and high unemployment rate will likely overlap in terms of how the state will vote federally, politics expert Dr Martin Drum says.
The Director of Public Policy at University of Notre Dame expected economic issues to be front and centre in WA on election day.
“Wage growth in WA has been very slow,” he said.
State-wise the McGowan Labor government is still in teething stages, only being elected in 2017.
“While a variety of issues have arisen since that time — the potential expulsion and resignation of Barry Urban being the most high profile — these are not likely to have an impact on the federal election,” Dr Drum said.
“Some regional voters have been very unhappy about state budget cuts impacting on regional services, even though several of those prominent cuts have been reversed. The federal seats covering these areas are already in Coalition hands.”
However he did highlight a number of Coalition seats that were at risk federally — namely
Hasluck, Pearce and Swan.
“Hasluck and Pearce are currently held by well known ministers Ken Wyatt and Christian Porter.
“An outside roughie is Stirling with a margin of 6.1 per cent where sitting member Michael Keenan is retiring.
“The Coalition has said they are targeting Cowan (Labor 0.7 per cent) but this would need a swing to the Coalition which is probably unlikely at this election.”
The Liberals will also be fighting to retain Curtin, after the party’s highest profile female politician — Julie Bishop — announced she would be vacating the seat. Lawyer Celia Hammond has been put forward by the WA liberals to replace her.
— Additional reporting by Natasha Christian
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