McGowan decimates WA Libs, adding to federal woe

It is usual, after heavy state election losses, for federal politicians from the losing party to distance themselves from the results on the grounds that voters distinguish between the different arenas. They do, as Scott Morrison noted on Sunday. But he and the Liberal Party face a massive challenge after Mark McGowan’s historic victory in Western Australia, and Labor took the state Liberal Party to the edge of extinction, as Paul Kelly described it. Behind closed doors, the Prime Minister and his team have much to repair. For years, Liberal support at federal level in WA has been as steady as a rock, often clinching victory for the party late into counting on federal election nights. But the Labor Party’s monumental win in the state on Saturday will weaken the Liberals federally in the west, not least in terms of campaign funding from the public purse. The WA division will have little in the kitty to fight the federal election, later this year or early next year. The Morrison government recently farewelled its strongest performer from the west, Mathias Cormann; and before him, Julie Bishop in 2019. Attorney-General Christian Porter and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds are fighting the battles of their lives. In part because of the rape scandals enveloping them, the government trails the opposition 48-52 per cent in the two-party-preferred vote in the latest Newspoll. Mr Morrison retains his strong lead over Anthony Albanese. But his margin as preferred prime minister has narrowed from 35 points to 26.

Mr McGowan, who won an extraordinary 82 per cent of the primary vote in his seat of Rockingham southwest of Perth, is on track to win 52 out of 59 lower house seats. Political analysts predict Labor will take control of the upper house. If so, Mr McGowan and his team will have near-unfettered power — and with it an enormous responsibility. He has offered up some sensible advice, which other Labor leaders, especially, could learn from. He had oriented the party, he said, to appeal to a wide cross-section of the community, including workers, small business people and subcontractors. His team was “very centrist, we are very middle-of-the-road”, he says. That balanced, shrewd outlook should help Mr McGowan avoid the fate of former Queensland premier Campbell Newman, who won government in a landslide in 2012 and lost it in an even bigger landslide in 2015.

For Mr McGowan, the strength of the WA economy was a powerful factor at the ballot box. As we reported recently, WA recorded the best budget performance in the world through the COVID-19 pandemic, boosted by surging iron ore royalties. Mr McGowan’s move, early in the pandemic, to allow mining companies to continue to fly in workers set the budget up for success. And like it or loathe it — and there are good reasons to loathe it — Mr McGowan’s rigid border controls appealed to voters.

The Liberal Party in WA did Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup, 34, its fourth leader in four years, no favours. He lost his seat on Saturday, after his first term. Nor did Mr Kirkup, who was pushed into a hard job too early, do his team any favours. Conceding three weeks ago the Liberals had already lost was a bad mistake. So, in a resources state, was the party’s ambitious green energy plan. The Liberals will have only two or three state seats and, as Paige Taylor reports, were humiliated to be beaten into seventh place in popular votes in the upper house by the Daylight Saving Party. The Nationals will be the official opposition. The non-Labor parties need a massive repair job. For the federal Coalition, it is a matter of urgency.