Nationals weaken WA by not handing over opposition status to Liberal Party

Every West Australian politician aspires to get their feet behind a desk in Dumas House – the West Perth nerve centre of the government.

The Liberals could have heeded a lesson from the building’s namesake Russell Dumas, an engineer and public servant whose lauded career lived by the need to “plan ahead”.

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam.Credit: Trevor Collens

Party leader Libby Mettam was clumsily unprepared when two significant events in WA politics happened within an hour of each other last week: the first when the Corruption and Crime Commission handed down its report finding Labor members of parliament routinely used publicly-funded electorate staff for campaigning duties.

The second, a $7.2 billion budget and 2038 deadline was revealed for Westport – a project Premier Roger Cook hopes will be his infrastructure legacy.

Six hours later, Mettam held a press conference where she admitted she had not read the CCC’s report or the state government’s plan for the Kwinana outer harbour.

Mettam opposed the project on the basis there were bigger priorities for the state to deal with like health, housing, justice and cost of living.

“We have made very clear our priorities, which is addressing a broken health system, addressing law and order issues, ensuring we have cost-of-living pressures addressed, housing and restoring services in the regions,” she said in varying forms during the presser at least 10 times.

But in response to a barrage of questions about her party’s plans to deal with Fremantle Port reaching capacity she could only say their transport policies would be released closer to the election.

That the person who hopes to be premier next year wasn’t across at least the headlines – summaries of both were available online – is nothing short of poor, especially when you’re lambasting Labor on each count and offering no policy alternative.

However, a lack of resourcing can be partly to blame. As party leader, but not the official opposition, Mettam’s staff count is just four full-time roles.

Thanks to the benefits that come with the official position as Opposition Leader, the Nationals’ Shane Love is afforded more than twice that. Plus a driver.

WA Opposition Leader Shane Love.Credit: Holly Thompson

When newly-elected Queensland Premier David Crisafulli gave his acceptance speech recently, he acknowledged his “humble 23-person opposition office”.

The Nationals technically have rights to Opposition but it is the Liberals that will be the ones to eventually wrest power from Labor.

By refusing to relinquish the status — and resources — of being the official opposition unless given something substantial in return, the Nationals are inhibiting the ability to hold the state government to account.

Anthony Albanese was accused of launching an “attack on democracy” after he slashed the staff allocation for crossbenchers from four to one: this is of a similar vein.

The position the Liberals are in following their 2021 landslide loss to Labor is of their own making and not helped by a leader who struggles to lead and/or articulate what she stands for, but at what cost?

If there’s no proper contest of ideas, the state is poorer for it.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.