Federal election: Scott Morrison puts his west foot forward

Scott Morrison has promised to maintain a strong WA presence in his cabinet should his government be re-elected.

Scott Morrison at an awards ceremony in Perth. Picture: Getty Images

Scott Morrison has promised to maintain a strong West Australian presence in his cabinet should his government be re-elected, amid growing signs that his party’s stranglehold in the west is under threat.

The Prime Minister on Wednesday appealed to West Australians to see past their popular Labor Premier Mark McGowan and focus on federal issues after polling showed Mr Morrison’s closest consigliere, Ben Morton, was at risk of losing his seat.

Mr Morrison, who is in Perth for the first time in almost a year, said he was confident Mr Morton – who is Minister Assisting the Prime Minister and Cabinet – could hold on to his place in parliament despite a poll showing his once-safe seat of Tangney was in danger.

The government holds 11 of the 16 lower house seats in WA, but will lose one with the abolition of the seat of Stirling and is in real danger of losing Swan, Pearce and Hasluck – the latter held by Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt – based on current polling trends.

A poll published by The West Australian newspaper showed a 50-50 battle in Tangney.

While the government has lost some of its most prominent WA-based MPs in recent years following the retirements of Julie Bishop and Mathias Cormann and the looming departure of Christian Porter, Mr Morrison said his remaining WA MPs had delivered for the state.

“Because of my Western Australian team and because of the closeness of the Western Australian team of Liberals that form our government, we’ve achieved a lot for Western Australia in just the last three years,” he said.

West Australians holding prominent positions in Mr Morrison’s government include Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price, Minister for Government Services Linda Reynolds, Mr Wyatt, and Mr Morton.

In contrast, opposition resources spokeswoman Madeleine King is the only WA-based Labor MP who appears certain of a cabinet place should Labor win the coming federal election.

Mr Morrison said the strong WA presence in his government had helped deliver the state its long sought-after overhaul of the GST, which is worth about $2.6bn a year in extra funding to the state.

While NSW and Victoria have agitated for Canberra to revisit the GST formula, Mr Morrison said it would be there “forever”.

“It wasn’t about a favour to Western Australia, it was about fairness for Western Australia, and that fairness was in the national interest and we took that on and we succeeded,” he said.

“It’s not a one off. It’s a forever deal for Western Australia that we’ve secured and that we’ve legislated and it will never, ever change under my government. We built it. We’ll keep it because we know how important it is.”