Ban on public cash for candidates explored as way for Libs to take Senate
THE government has explored withholding public funding to candidates in any new West Australian Senate election.
THE government has explored withholding public funding to candidates in any fresh West Australian Senate election in a high-stakes bid to maintain its numbers in the upper house, The Australian understands.
The outcome of the state's Senate poll is currently before the Court of Disputed Returns.
The initial result indicated three of the top four places were won by the Liberal Party and one by the ALP, with the final two positions going to the Palmer United Party's Zhenya Wang and Labor's Louise Pratt.
A recount demanded by the Greens saw their sitting senator, Scott Ludlum, and the Sports Party's Wayne Dropulich elected in Mr Wang's and Senator Pratt's stead.
During the process it was discovered that 1370 votes had gone missing, leading an embarrassed Australian Electoral Commission to ask the court to overturn the result and order a fresh election.
The PUP filed a countersuit, calling on the court to uphold the original result. Labor has joined with this action. Hearings don't begin again until late next month. The disputed result has led into uncharted legal and political territory. From July 1 next year, the Coalition will control 33 votes in the 76-member Senate, tantalisingly close to a majority.
But The Australian understands that government sources have been worried from the moment speculation over a fresh poll in Western Australia emerged that any new vote would see them lose their third senator-elect, Linda Reynolds.
Their fears were confirmed by the Newspoll quarterly aggregates, released last week.
These show that the Coalition's primary vote in the west has plunged by 10 percentage points from its election-day level of 51.2 per cent, to 41 per cent.
Over the same period, Labor's primary vote has leapt from 28.8 per cent to 36 per cent and support for "others" has risen from 10.3 per cent to 13 per cent.
On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor and the Coalition are even in Western Australia on 50 per cent, compared with the election result of 58.3 per cent to 41.7 per cent in the government's favour.
The Australian understands the government canvassed all options when the threat of a fresh Senate poll became real. These included withholding public funding, paid to all political parties and candidates who get more than 4 per cent of the vote, to scare off independent and minor-party candidates.
The tactic could have boosted the Coalition's chances in any fresh poll. The West Australian division of the Liberals is regarded as the country's wealthiest, while Labor is in a parlous financial state nationwide.
But it was soon realised such a move would be impossible without amendments to electoral laws, which would be blocked in the Senate by Labor and the Greens.
Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson declined to comment, as the matter is before the court. However, he has previously expressed "deep concerns about . . . significant process failure" in the West Australian Senate count and asked the joint standing committee on electoral matters to examine Senate voting reform.