Ken Wyatt backs Morrison to save the west from Labor

Ken Wyatt has backed the PM to help him win his Perth seat and pull off an upset election win.

Terrani Jack, 23, and Tomzarni Dann, 32, talk to ken Wyatt during campaigning in his Perth seat of Hasluck. Picture: Colin Murty

Liberal minister Ken Wyatt, who is fighting to retain the party’s most marginal West Australian seat, has backed Scott Morrison to help him win Hasluck and pull off an upset election victory.

He insists the anger over the Liberal Party leadership spill against Malcolm Turnbull in ­August has “eased” — despite ongoing disillusionment over the churn in prime ministers in both major parties. He also believes Mr Turnbull’s behaviour since quitting parliament has left voters “disappointed”.

Hasluck, which is held on a margin of 2.1 per cent, takes in outer eastern Perth suburbs with a diverse range of residents, from those battling to make ends meet week to week to those comfortably retired or on good incomes. But Mr Wyatt says the mood is favourable for Mr Morrison.

“They like his sincerity, they like his honesty and they like his personable approach to the ordinary person,” Mr Wyatt says.

“There were people who liked Malcolm because of his stance previously on issues around ­energy and climate but equally they were disappointed at the way Malcolm has been since leaving politics. People are honest barometers and they speak their mind.

“Every campaign’s a fight ­because every election I’ve stood for, and it’s all three (since 2010), I was told the same thing: that I was in the fight for my life, that I would find it hard to be re-elected. But the people of Hasluck have judged me on my performance and certainly on what I’ve been able to fight for and deliver for them.”

Mr Turnbull has made several notable interventions post-politics, including on the weekend when he lashed a “right-wing minority” in the Liberal Party for ­opposing his signature national energy guarantee policy, which “especially” had the support of Mr Morrison and Josh Frydenberg.

Labor strategists believe the Liberal-held electorates of Swan, Hasluck, Pearce, Stirling and Canning could fall to their party at the election, but admit each fight will be won “millimetre by millimetre”.

They say Mr Wyatt and member for Swan Steve Irons are “scared” but acknowledge the former is “a force”.

Mr Wyatt lists aged care and youth mental health services as key election issues in Hasluck and says if he were re-elected and Mr Morrison formed government he wants to remain Aged Care Minister to oversee reforms recommended by the royal commission.

He is on a mission to change the country’s mindset on ageing, countering the rhetoric that once people turn 55 or 60 they are no longer required in the workforce, and encouraging Australians to start thinking about living to 100.

It is likely Mr Wyatt, the first ­indigenous lower house MP and first indigenous minister, would also be given a key role in achieving constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait ­Islander people after the government allocated $7.3 million to ­investigate a model for an advisory body such as a “voice to parliament”.

“The Prime Minister, from my discussions with him, is open to a solution but he wants to develop it in concert with Aboriginal people,” Mr Wyatt says.

“The Uluru statement reached a point in which the views of those who were at Uluru were shaped in that statement.

“There’s a lot of support for the underlying principles to do with the statement from the heart.

“But governments have got to turn that into practical solutions.”

With just over three weeks until polling day, and his campaign launch on Sunday, Mr Wyatt says voters are focused on cost of living pressures, jobs and the success of their families, which plays well with Mr Morrison as his leader.