Changing the election date is purely a political ploy: Barnett

Colin Barnett says the exceptional circumstances provision around WA’s election date was designed for natural disasters or civil unrest, not ‘political ploys’.

Former WA premier Colin Barnett. Picture: Colin Murty

The man who introduced Western Australia’s fixed parliamentary terms says discussions between federal and state Labor over the dates for next year’s elections are wrong and should not meet the “exceptional circumstances” conditions of the legislation governing the state’s election scheduling.

Colin Barnett introduced fixed four-year terms in WA in his first act after becoming premier in 2008. The legislation requires the election to be held on the second Saturday of March every four years, and allows for the date of the election to be shifted by one week only in the event that a federal election is scheduled for the same day. There are provisions for the date to be moved by more than that in the event of “exceptional circumstances”, but only with agreement between the government and the leader of the ­opposition.

WA Premier Roger Cook this week revealed he had sought legal advice on shifting the date following a conversation with Anthony Albanese.

WA is shaping as a key state for the next federal election, with Labor’s ability to hold on to the four seats it gained there in 2022 likely to determine whether Mr Albanese can hold on to power.

Mr Barnett told The Australian he believed it was “improper” for Mr Cook and Mr Albanese to discuss shifting the date of the WA election. “This is the Labor Party basically dictating, or trying to dictate, to West Australians what should happen,” he said.

“The legislation I introduced as a new premier set out that there be a fixed four-year term and a fixed election date. The only situation that’s seen to apply is if there is some exceptional circumstance for that date to be changed. That could be a major natural disaster, it could be civil unrest, it could be a pandemic, whatever else. But it’s got to be exceptional, not just at the whim of someone.

“This is clearly not an exceptional circumstance. It is just a political ploy.”

Mr Barnett said Labor should also be mindful of a potential backlash from voters in the west if they were seen as trying to gain an unfair advantage.

His surprise win in the 2008 election came off the back of a decision by Labor’s then-premier Alan Carpenter to call a snap early election soon after Mr Barnett became opposition leader. That move backfired spectacularly, with voters widely seen as punishing Mr Carpenter for seeking to game the system.

Fortescue executive chairman Andrew Forrest, left, with former WA premier Alan Carpenter, second right, at Parliament House in Perth.

“It’s a crazy thing to be doing, to be contemplating something similar in the next election. I can’t see why Labor would want to follow that mistake,” Mr Barnett said.

Mr Cook has tried to downplay the significance of his decision to seek legal advice over a date change.

On Wednesday, he said the ultimate outcome was beyond WA’s control, given only the Prime Minister could decide when the election would take place.

“All I know is that in WA, we’ll have an election on the 8th of March, unless we don’t,” he said.

“It’s just out of our hands and we understand that we just really have to basically understand the circumstances at the time and make decisions on the basis of that.”

Overlapping state and federal elections would likely put enormous strain on the state’s electoral commission while also stretching the campaigning resources of the political parties.

WA Opposition Leader Shane Love has already signalled he was unlikely to agree to any shift in the date. He also said a shift in the date would hurt the Prime Minister’s re-election prospects, declaring it would mark the end of the Albanese government.

The relative timings of the federal and WA elections has been an ongoing source of conjecture in the west, given what many perceive as the unpopularity of Mr Albanese there and the huge parliamentary majority enjoyed by Mr Cook.

Many believe that holding the state election first could help shield the Albanese government at the subsequent federal election, as Mr Cook’s government would feel the backlash of any resentment towards the Prime Minister.