Nationals ready to lead West Australian opposition

The WA Nationals leader says she’s ready to lead the opposition if her party catapults past the Liberals at the election.

WA Nationals leader Mia Davies with Dardanup Tavern publican Anthony Smith on Thursday. Picture: Colin Murty

The leader of the West Australian Nationals says she is ready to lead the opposition if her party catapults past the Liberals at the state election in just over two weeks.

And Mia Davies said she would not give up the campaign fight against Labor after Liberal leader Zak Kirkup’s remarkable early concession that he could not win against Mark McGowan.

“Our continued mantra with our communities and our constituents and the people we seek to represent is that we may not win every fight but we will get a bloody nose trying,” she said in an interview in the front bar of The Dardy, the only pub in Dardanup, two hours’ south of Perth.

“To not do that means you concede or accept we shouldn’t have good healthcare, that our kids shouldn’t go to a local school, that our services are too expensive to deliver so we should retract back to the metro area. I’m not conceding that.”

The Australian’s Newspoll last week showed a 12.5 per cent swing towards Labor, which if replicated on election day could reduce the Liberals to as few as two seats, with the Nationals holding four.

The state Liberals and Nationals are not in a formal coalition, opening the way for the Nationals to become the opposition if the Liberals lose significant seats.

Ms Davies said she hadn’t given that scenario a thought but had full confidence she and her team could step into the role if needed. “I’ve never taken a backwards step when a challenge has been presented, and there’s certainly been many in my time as a member of parliament, both for our organisation and for me personally,” she said.

“I have great confidence that if we are in a position that requires us to step up, we will have the right people to do that.”

Federal WA Liberal MPs were on Thursday divided over Mr Kirkup’s novel campaign strategy of conceding the March 13 election weeks before polling day.

“We are going to lose to McGowan so in some ways Zak’s comments make our messaging easier: don’t give Labor too much power, keep a strong opposition … that message is cutting through,” one Liberal MP, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

“The message is OK, but I’m not sure about the way he executed it. We’re having a hard enough time getting Liberals to volunteer — this will likely make it harder.”

The WA Premier’s position on a hard border — a large factor in his popularity — was initially opposed by the federal government, but Scott Morrison pulled the commonwealth out of a High Court case brought by businessman Clive Palmer, who was trying to reopen the border.

“Once the state election is over, we will be able to have a lot of federal material ready on closing the international border and how JobKeeper helped,” another WA Liberal MP said. “The High Court issue definitely bit us.”

The poll that could leave the Nationals as the second-largest party in parliament could also be the election that permanently curtails its influence in WA.

The Nationals fear a McGowan government with control of both houses of parliament could open the door for an overhaul of the state’s electoral rules, and introduce“one vote, one value” for the state’s upper house.

As it stands, a vote in rural WA is worth as many as six in the metropolitan area when electing members of WA’s Legislative Council.

Addressing that issue would make it far harder for the Nationals to have any influence.

Ms Davies says such a change would all but silence the voices of country people, many of whom are fighting for services people in Perth take for granted.

“In old Country Party parlance, it is sheep stations for regional Western Australia at this election,” she said.

Mr McGowan has refused to rule in or out any such reforms, saying only they are not on his agenda. However, the Greens, who are a strong chance to secure the balance of power, are adamant they want to see the imbalance addressed.

Mr Kirkup, in a concession made hours before his only debate against Mr McGowan on Thursday, said he accepted it was “not my time” but urged voters to support the Liberals because a landslide would hurt democracy.