'A game for fighters': Zak Kirkup is new WA Liberals leader

Zak Kirkup has been declared leader of the WA Liberals, with Libby Mettam elected deputy leader.

Party powerbroker Nick Goiran said the party was united behind the new leadership team.

The Dawesville MP had been expected to win a vote against Bateman MP Dean Nalder, but Mr Nalder issued a statement just after 9am withdrawing his nomination.

New WA opposition leader Zak Kirkup.Credit: Peter de Kruijff

"In the best interests of the Liberal Party, I withdraw my intention to nominate as Leader of the WA Liberal party at this morning’s party room meeting," Mr Nalder said.

New deputy opposition leader Libby Mettam.Credit: Peter de Kruijff

"It has become apparent that I don't have the majority support of my parliamentary colleagues and therefore will clear a path for the new leader.

"I have been humbled at the level of support from my electorate and the wider community."

Before the party room meeting, Mr Kirkup said politics was "a game for fighters".

"I'm not going to speculate on what the likely outcome might be," he said.

"All that matters is from the moment the partyroom finishes is that we are a united Liberal team, ready to spend the next 109 days holding this government to account."

Mr Kirkup, 33, rejected suggestions his bid for the leadership was underwritten by support from party powerbrokers and said it was his decision to stand for the leadership.

A life steeped in politics

Zak Richard Francis Kirkup was born in Subiaco the son of New Zealand emigrant and pharmacy retail assistant Penni Hulston and Rob Kirkup, who started as a plumber’s apprentice before getting into civil construction and earth moving.

His paternal grandfather Brian was a Yamatji man from the Mid West.

Mr Kirkup spoke in his maiden speech in Parliament about how the family would rise and fall with the state’s fortunes.

"My parents have worked incredibly hard to be where they are today, and like many Western Australians, they have been heavily reliant on the buoyancy of our state’s resource industry," he said.

"When times were good in WA our family flourished. When times were tough, as they are now, our family has sometimes barely managed to keep their heads above water."

Mr Kirkup grew up around Midland, Guildford and Woodbridge and attended Governor Stirling Senior High School.

In 2004, he famously handed then Prime Minister John Howard a business card that said, "Zak Kirkup, Future Prime Minister".

"After telling Mr Howard that it would be 'pretty soon' until I held the top job, the handing over of that business card became a catalyst for my arrival here today," Mr Kirkup said in his first speech.

Mr Kirkup was recruited by former Liberal Party state director Paul Everingham, who now runs the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, and got involved in campaigns a year after graduating high school.

He rose through the ranks to become deputy state director under now-Federal MP Ben Morton and, at the age of 22, joined Colin Barnett's office in his first term as premier.

After the 2013 election, Mr Kirkup left politics to work at BGC but started living in the seat of Dawesville, which he would take over from retiring MP Kim Hames.

New opposition leader Zak Kirkup with the same type of business card he once handed to Prime Minister John Howard.Credit: Peter de Kruijff

Mr Kirkup managed to hold the seat despite a 19.3 point first-preference swing against the Liberal Party.

As a first-term MP he started out as the shadow parliamentary secretary to opposition leader Mike Nahan.

By the end of his first year he became the party’s opposition spokesman for corrective services and eventually was promoted to the health portfolio last year.

Mr Kirkup’s appointment as opposition leader makes him the second-youngest in WA history after Labor’s Thomas Bath, who assumed the role in 1906 at the age of 31.

He is the youngest Liberal to take on the job after Matt Birney, who was 35.

In recent months, Mr Kirkup has been in a romantic relationship with assistant editor of The West Australian, Jenna Clarke, a former journalist for WAtoday and the Sydney Morning Herald.