WA Liberals Mandurah candidate quits after Facebook post controversy

The WA Liberal Party’s candidate for Mandurah James Hall will not contest the seat at the 2025 election after a string of anti-migration Facebook posts he shared between 2017 and 2019 were unearthed.

The West Australian published Hall’s shared posts which included one post with a text image shared in September 2017 which said “‘I’m proud to be white’ I bet no one passes this one because they are scared of be (sic) called a racist.”

Earlier on Wednesday Hall said he regretted those posts and apologised to anyone offended but the issue dominated state politics for the rest of the day.

Liberal leader Libby Mettam shut down a press conference on Wednesday afternoon after a barrage of questions about whether she still supported Hall as the candidate. Less than two hours later during question time, she faced a wall of criticism from Labor ministers for not disendorsing him.

In a statement released late on Wednesday Hall said he did not want the posts to become an issue for the Liberal party.

“I have advised the WA Liberal Party that I have decided to stand aside as the Liberal candidate for Mandurah,” he said.

“I have already acknowledged that in the past, I displayed poor judgement by sharing inappropriate and crude material on my personal social media.

“I regret the nature of some of these posts and I am sorry for any offence they have caused to people in our community. These posts do not reflect who I am or my personal values.

“However, I am not prepared to have this issue become a distraction for the Liberal Party’s campaign.”

Hall said more importantly he did not want to see his family hurt by ongoing media coverage of “silly things I posted online years ago.”

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam.Credit: Hamish Hastie

“The election campaign in Mandurah needs to focus on key local priorities like addressing cost-of-living pressures, making housing more affordable and fixing WA’s broken health system,” he said.

“I am deeply grateful for the support I received from local Liberal Party members. I look forward to helping the Party’s new candidate deliver the change that Mandurah deserves.”

At question time Housing Minister John Carey shouted at Mettam that she was “damned forever” after she refused to disendorse Hall.

“We now know to be pre-selected for the Liberal party you’ve either got to be bonkers, extreme right-wing or anti-housing, that seems to be the qualifications,” he said.

“[Mettam] actually had to walk out of a press conference today because she was under so much pressure because she would not disendorse a candidate.

“We have a Liberal leader who does not think its ethically or morally correct to call out a candidate who claims migrants hate our culture and are bleeding our welfare system.

“It’s a failure of moral leadership … you are damned forever.”

During her press conference, Mettam said Hall’s posts were out of step with community expectations but did not disendorse him.

“James Hall has apologised for those comments, he regrets those comments,” she said.

She conceded she had not yet spoken to Hall or seen the posts he shared.