Departing Honey warns of anti-infill threat to WA Libs

David Honey, who just over a year ago was the WA Liberal leader, lost preselection for the seat of Cottesloe to Property Council of WA chief executive Sandra Brewer.

Dr David Honey. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tony McDonough

The West Australian Liberal MP who at the weekend lost his pre­selection says the party will need to beware of a challenge from an anti-development candidate if it is to hold on to its last remaining metropolitan seat.

David Honey, who just over a year ago was the leader of the heavily denuded WA Liberal Party, on Saturday lost preselection for the blue ribbon seat of Cottesloe to Property Council of WA chief Sandra Brewer.

His defeat means it looks increasingly likely that Liberal leader Libby Mettam will be the only Liberal MP with parliamentary experience left in WA’s lower house after next year’s state election. The only other Liberal MP in the lower house, recent Nationals defector Merome Beard, has had her seat abolished and faces a difficult challenge of defeating incumbent opposition leader Shane Love for his seat of Moore if she is to remain in parliament.

Speaking to The Australian on Sunday, Dr Honey said he was “disappointed but not shattered” by the outcome.

He said he would spend his remaining 13 months as a Liberal MP fighting against overdevelopment in and around Cottesloe, warning that the party faced a “huge threat” from anti-development independents in many key seats if it did not present itself “as the party that is going to rein this in and protect our suburbs”.

He noted that a recently formed WA tree canopy advocacy group had already signed up 18,000 members, while he had been told of at least one group looking to run anti-development candidates at the next election.

The Cook government last year used its parliamentary numbers to push through planning changes that Dr Honey said made it dramatically easier for property developers to push through proposals well in excess of local planning schemes.

Several high rise developments have already begun across coastal and riverside suburbs, and Dr Honey said those buildings had wiped millions of dollars off the value of adjacent residential properties.

“Every time I go into the shops, people stop me and talk about that. It is the No.1 issue.

“So if the Liberal Party is not seen to represent the community’s and the electorate’s concerns about infill, and if they don’t have proper answers to that in terms of what they’re going to do to give communities some control over what happens in planning, there’s a real risk you will get anti-infill independents,” he said.

Saturday’s plebiscite was the first of its kind under the new model introduced by the party in the wake of its 2021 election annihilation. Ms Brewer secured 51 votes, giving her a clear majority over Dr Honey (28 votes) and entertainment lawyer Richard Evans (12 votes).

Sandra Brewer, centre, with Julie Bishop and Senator Michaelia Cash at a Liberal campaign party in 2015.

Despite Dr Honey’s concerns about Saturday’s result potentially opening the door to an anti-development candidate, others in the Liberal Party expressed relief at the outcome.

There had been fears among some senior Liberal figures that Dr Honey would have been especially vulnerable to a teal campaign, mirroring the loss of the federal seat of Curtin to Kate Chaney at the last election.

While Ms Brewer’s elevation must be ratified by the party’s State Council next month, there are no indications it will look to overturn the result.