Federal Labor swoops in to select Perth Hills councillor for nation’s newest seat

A Perth Hills shire councillor has leapfrogged a sitting state MP as Labor’s candidate for the newly created federal seat of Bullwinkel.

Mundaring Shire deputy president will run for Labor in Bullwinkel.Credit: Shire of Mundaring

Shire of Mundaring councillor of six years and current deputy president Trish Cook has been preselected to run for the must-win seat with the backing of the federal tranche of the party.

Cook’s preselection dashes the hopes of state upper house MP Kyle McGinn, who announced his nomination in July for the new seat that covers much of the Perth Hills area and a large chunk of the farming Wheatbelt region.

The party’s federal executive confirmed Cook’s preselection on Monday. This masthead understands McGinn was the only other party member to nominate.

A Labor insider not authorised to speak publicly on preselection matters said some in the party were surprised by the decision and by the federal arm of the party’s intervention in the preselection, which in normal circumstances would have been dealt with by state party administration.

McGinn declined to comment.

Cook declined an invitation to comment, deferring to WA Labor, which has been contacted.

Bullwinkel is a must-win state for both major parties in the West and is shaping up as one of the most interesting political contests in the state.

It is notionally a Labor seat but both the Liberals and Nationals have selected strong candidates for the fierce three-cornered contest.

In August, former WA opposition leader and Nationals leader Mia Davies announced she would not proceed with her planned retirement from state politics at the 2025 election, instead, she will run in Bullwinkel.

Upper House Labor MP Kyle McGinn.Credit: WA Parliament

She has a significant profile in WA and Nationals leader David Littleproud said Davies was the “only pathway” for the Coalition to win the seat.

The Liberals have selected former political staffer and journalist Matt Moran as their candidate.

Both parties will tap into anti-Labor sentiment in regional areas of the seat that have been whipped up after the Commonwealth’s decision to shut down the live export sheep trade. The new seat was named for Vivian Bullwinkel, sole Australian survivor of the 1942 Bangka Island massacre.

Based on voting patterns at the 2022 federal election, when it enjoyed an unprecedented 10.6 per cent two-party preferred swing in WA that helped it net four Liberal-held seats, Labor would hold Bullwinkel on a 3.3 per cent margin.

Some calculations show while it would be a Labor seat based on the 2022 election results, it would go to the Liberals on the 2019 poll outcome.

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