Controversial Liberal hope for Albany not afraid to fight the culture wars

Thomas Brough has become the embodiment of the internal Liberal Party debate in Western Australia over its future direction.

Dr Thomas Brough, Liberal candidate who is in a tight battle for the seat of Albany. Picture: Facebook

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Meet Thomas Brough, the man who may be about to become the most controversial MP in the West Australian parliament.

During his short time in the public eye, the Liberal candidate for the regional seat of Albany has attacked WA’s biggest trading partner, angered the LGBTQI+ community, been reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, ignited debate over abortion laws, had a brush with a stalker, and caused major headaches for his leader Libby Mettam. And he hasn’t even been elected yet.

On paper, Dr Brough had the makings of a model candidate: he’s an emergency room doctor, an army reservist, a volunteer firefighter, a councillor with the City of Albany, and a photogenic family man (his third child was born late last year).

Thomas Brough and his family. Picture: Facebook

But it is his conservative social views – and his willingness to express them – that has some in the party wondering whether he is an asset or a liability.

On Saturday, at a press conference alongside Ms Mettam, Dr Brough answered “yes” when asked if WA should review its abortion laws, saying “babies born alive should not be left to die”. That was a reference to what anti-abortion groups say are the 31 infants in the state who have briefly survived the abortion process.

WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson dismissed that characterisation as “dangerous misinformation”. Instead, she said that some women with un­viable pregnancies sometimes choose to give birth so the baby can die in their arms.

Dr Brough’s comments forced Ms Mettam – who had voted in favour of Labor’s abortion reforms last year – to issue not one but two subsequent statements clarifying the party’s position and ruling out any such review.

Roger Cook on Monday attacked Dr Brough as a homophobic extremist who “is a risk to our democratic system”.

“He continues to promote extremist views and they came across in the full light of day … standing next to the Liberal leader,” he said.

It was not the first time Dr Brough’s public comments have caused problems for Ms Mettam. Last year, after being told that Dr Brough had linked pedophiles to the “plus” in LGBTQI+, Ms Mettam described those comments as “bizarre”.

Speaking to The Australian, Dr Brough says that he does not want to be a soldier in the culture wars. He says his political priorities are to help fix the basic necessities that have suffered under Labor.

But he says he will not be afraid of stepping on social issues when necessary.

“What we’ve seen is this current government has become completely radical in the social domain. I’m very comfortable pushing back against radical left social ideology,” he said.

“My views are not controversial. I’m very happy to say a woman is an adult human female and there’s nothing controversial about that.”

Dr Brough’s supporters note that his views on abortion are those of a typical mainstream Catholic and even align with some within Labor (veteran Labor upper house MP Kate Doust voted against her party’s latest abortion law reforms).

He says Labor’s labelling of him as homophobic does not gel with the direct experiences of the people of Albany.

“The facts will speak for themselves. It’s really hard for Labor to run a smear campaign when half the electorate have seen me in the emergency department at 10pm stitching up their kid’s head. It just doesn’t resonate,” he says.

Beyond the immediate firestorms around his comments, Dr Brough has become the embodiment of the internal Liberal Party debate over its future direction.

The WA Liberals in particular have been hurt by an ongoing perception that it the party is disproportionately controlled by ­religious conservatives.

Some in the party believe its path back lies in a more forthright conservative stance. Others argue that those culture war issues are only of interest to the small numbers at the fringes of the political spectrum, with the party needing to show it can address the more relevant issues facing Middle Australia before it can be trusted to govern again.

Dr Brough says that while his core focus is on improving services and the way of life for the people of Albany, he is ready to go toe-to-toe with Labor.

“I want to actually have a meaningful debate on these issues, be they economic issues, be they healthcare issues, be they social issues. Let’s leave the invective behind and have a reasonable debate,” he said.

“Regardless of what your politics are, the outcome is trying to make things better for your electorate and your state. And you will not get good public policy if you do not get good public debate, and you will not get good public debate if people are too afraid of being beaten up by whatever the ascendant side of politics is.”

The WA Liberal Party has a history of producing problematic candidates, and this campaign Mr Cook has repeatedly attacked what he describes as a “rogues gallery” of homophobes, racists, One Nation rejects, dodgy builders and anti-vaxxers put forward by the Liberals.

Many of those candidates are simply making up the numbers in unwinnable seats, but Dr Brough is different. Not only does he enjoy considerable support within the party, he also has a very strong chance of getting elected.

Albany is an intrinsically conservative electorate but has been held by Labor for the past 24 years. Local sporting hero and former Olympian Peter Watson claimed the seat for Labor in 2001, and incumbent MP Rebecca Stephens held it during Mark McGowan’s 2021 victory.

Polling suggests, however, that Albany is firmly among the seats that could fall to the Liberals this weekend.

Should he win Albany at the weekend, Dr Brough won’t be walking away from medicine. He said he hoped to continue to work as a doctor during the parliamentary recess.

“I think that would make me a much better parliamentarian in the long term,” he said. “It would help keep me out of the political bubble and just remind me of the things that are important which can perhaps get lost.”