Electoral losses in WA to cost Liberals $1m in reimbursements

Back-to-back election disasters are set to cost the Liberal Party in Western Australia more than $1.1m in lost electoral reimbursements.

Ken Wyatt was one of the biggest fundraisers among Liberal members in Western Australia. Picture: Colin Murty

Back-to-back election disasters are set to cost the West Australian division of the Liberal Party more than $1.1m in lost electoral reimbursements alone, putting further pressure on party finances under strain.

The Liberal Party’s share of the reimbursements paid out after elections to parties that win more than 4 per cent of the vote has fallen dramatically in WA in the past year, following the dismal 2021 state election and the recent loss of half its seats in the state at the recent federal election.

The party’s WA arm is expected to emerge with less than $3.6m of combined reimbursements following the 2021 and 2022 polls, well down from the almost $4.8m it received in the wake of the 2017 and 2019 state and federal polls.

The party’s dismal election results are also set to significantly impact its two other key sources of revenue.

The party collects a share of every state MP’s salary, but the number of Liberal MPs in WA’s parliament has fallen from 48 ahead of its 2017 election defeat to just nine.

Federal Liberal MPs were also expected to deliver set annual fundraising targets, but the number of WA-based representatives and senators has fallen from 14 to seven following the election.

Those losses include two of the party’s biggest fundraisers, Celia Hammond and Ken Wyatt, while the absence of WA-based ministers following the election defeat also significantly diminishes the fundraising opportunities.

The party is understood to have spent significant sums ­trying to hold seats that ­ultimately fell during the poll.

Party sources estimated that more than $1m was spent in the campaign for the seat of Swan and more than $600,000 in Christian Porter’s old seat of Swan, both of which were comfortably won by Labor, while Curtin – which traditionally helped bankroll campaigns in other more marginal seats – was forced to spend much more than usual in the face of a successful $1m campaign by teal independent Kate Chaney.

Independent member for Curtin Kate Chaney. Picture: Facebook

WA Liberal Party president Richard Wilson told The Australian the party had run a “conservative and prudent budget” for the recent election and still had some cash at bank in the wake of the poll, but he acknowledged the party did have a challenge to sustain funding levels of recent years.

“In terms of future revenue options, losing government does make it quite difficult to raise money from donors in the future, particularly with state and federal elections still 2½ years away,” he said.

The increasingly parlous state of the party’s finances in WA may help build the case for the reforms now being pushed by Mr Wilson.

He is calling for an overhaul of the party’s internal structures, most notably pushing for a model that will allow members a direct vote on who stands for the party in their electorate.

Such reforms could broaden the appeal and value of party membership, although membership fees have historically represented warned about 10 per cent of the party’s revenue.

The party holds assets, including blue-chip stocks, that generate income and could be sold off if a significant cash injection were needed, but the party will see such a move as a last resort.

Last year’s internal review of the 2021 election defeat warned that the corporate supporter base of the party had shrunk dramatically since 2017 and its financial viability was at risk if that trend continued.

“Fundraising has largely become dependent on a few individuals rather than the fin­ance committee that has demonstrably failed for a long time to raise any funds for election campaigns or functioning of the party,” the review said.