Civil war as Liberal Party’s hopes go west

The second wipe-out of the Liberal Party in WA in the space of 14 months has reopened a civil war within the party’s state branch.

Labor’s winning Western Australian candidates on the South Perth foreshore. Picture: Colin Murty

The second wipe-out of the Liberal Party in WA in the space of 14 months has reopened a civil war within the party’s WA branch, amid fears it could become a spent force for a generation.

The 11 seats won by the Liberals in WA in 2019 were central to Scott Morrison’s “miracle” win in 2019, but the party looks set to emerge from the weekend with as few as four seats in the state.

The shock result could leave the party holding just one seat in metropolitan Perth at a state and federal level: the seat of Cottesloe, held by WA Liberals leader David Honey. Ian Goodenough may, however, scrape through to hold his seat of Moore in Perth’s north, with the incumbent MP leading his Labor challenger by just 815 votes.

The Liberal Party suffered swings against it in all WA seats, including 15 per cent in Pearce, 10 per cent in Moore and 9 per cent in the safe regional seats of Durack and O’Connor, while the safe blue-ribbon seat of Curtin in Perth’s wealthy western suburbs is on track to fall to teal independent Kate Chaney.

As rival Liberal factions began to argue with each other over who was responsible for the dire outcome, the most senior federal Liberal MP from WA, Michaelia Cash, tried to argue that the result suggested the party had improved its standing since last year.

“We’ve at least got our primary vote of about 35 per cent, when it fell to about 21 per cent at the state election, so that proves the rebuild has begun and is working,” she told reporters on Sunday.

While the magnitude of Saturday’s loss is less than that at the 2021 state election, when the party was reduced to two of 59 lower house seats, many in the party see the weekend result as worse.

Labor candidates mark their election success on the South Perth foreshore. Picture: Colin Murty

Premier Mark McGowan’s emphatic re-election came at the height of the pandemic against a Liberal Party that was already entrenched in opposition.

The weekend’s wipe-out destroyed what was the “jewel in the crown” of the party in WA, a dominant presence that had seen WA Liberal MPs occupying some of the most prestigious ministerial roles in the country.

Last year’s election debacle culminated in a scathing review by influential party figure Danielle Blain and prominent Perth lawyer Mark Trowell QC. That report identified a huge range of problems within the party, warning that “unethical, underhand and corrupt” conduct by party members and MPs had left the party short on cash and on the verge of “extinction”.

The reform efforts raised by that bombshell report, however, were parked after senior party figures decided to wait until after the federal election so all its efforts could be focused on buttressing its federal numbers.

With the party’s federal base now reduced to rubble in WA, the factional infighting has resumed.

Moderate voices in the party have put the blame at the feet of the party’s conservative faction. They believe the growing influence of the religious right has alienated voters and led to the preselection of unsuitable candidates.

The conservative faction, however, notes that it was moderate figures who were disproportionately turfed out across the country at the weekend.

The most senior lower house figure to survive the rout is conservative MP Andrew Hastie, while the candidate most likely to scrape through, Mr Goodenough, enjoys strong support from the religious community.

While the civil war has resumed, the real issue for the rival camps is there is not much left to fight over.

One member of the party’s moderate faction says the fight over whether to reform the party or not is largely irrelevant given its existential issues in WA.