McGowan’s Labor makes pitch for conservative vote at party launch

Premier launches slick, presidential-style election campaign a day after Newspoll shows him on track to annihilate the Liberals.

Premier Mark McGowan at the launch of the WA Labor Party election campaign at the RAC Arena on Sunday. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Philip Gostelow

West Australian premier Mark McGowan has launched the Labor Party’s state election campaign to a rapturous applause and his signature AC/DC theme song Thunderstruck, a day after Newspoll showed his government is on track to annihilate the WA Liberal Party like never before.

The slick launch to party faithful included a presidential-campaign style video about Mr McGowan narrated by Mr McGowan. Projected onto big screens, the video began with old photos of the phenomenally-popular premier as a young navy lawyer and pictures of Mr McGowan with his wife Sarah and their children. NSW-born Mr McGowan said he could never have imagined what WA had in store for him when he moved to the state 30 years ago. In the video, Mr McGowan said raising his family “is the most important thing I will ever do”.

WA Labor is cashed up and predicted to take control of both houses of parliament on March 13. Newspoll — conducted after Perth and surrounds were locked down for five days because a hotel security guard contracted coronavirus — found there would be a 12.5 per cent swing to the McGowan government if an election was held today. That could leave the WA Liberals with as few as two seats in the lower house, where they currently have 13.

Mark McGowan and wife Sarah at the launch. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Philip Gostelow

Sunday’s launch positioned the McGowan government as architects of the state’s coronavirus-free status and focused on the relative freedoms enjoyed by West Australians compared with other Australians where outbreaks have been numerous. Almost all of the jobs lost at the beginning of the pandemic have been made up, thanks in part to a $3.5bn stimulus package that was also a shot in the arm to property developers.

WA Health Minister and Deputy Premier Roger Cook warmed up the crowd in an animated speech that claimed the state Liberals had consistently opposed government measures that had kept the state safe during the pandemic. He lashed them for choosing weird and dangerous candidates and “tinfoil hat wearers” in an apparent reference to the preselection of a 5G conspiracy theorist and a woman who co-founded a church that preaches “God is allowing this coronavirus as a reset”.

Mr Cook appealed directly to conservatives who have watched as WA Labor embraces the big business while the WA Liberals campaign on shutting down coal-fired power stations and a zero emissions target.

“Frankly this is not the Liberal Party of old, this is a pale imitation,” Mr Cook said.

The centrepiece of WA Labor’s campaign launch was a WA Jobs Taskforce’ — chaired by Mr McGowan — aimed at creating 125,000 jobs by 2026.

It included making WA the manufacturer of components required to maintain the 32,000 rail wagons used to carry iron ore to Pilbara ports. The McGowan government intends to give $15m local manufacturers to help them prepare.

Under Labor’s plan, local manufacturers would take over production of all wagon components. Each year, about 300,000 components are needed to keep wagons in working order. Ultimately, WA companies would build new wagons as well.