WA Liberals looking to Basil Zempilas to spice up faulty party

Liberal Party insiders in WA are already mulling whether TV personality and City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas should be made leader.

TV personality and City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas could be appointed West Australian Liberal Party leader as early as November. Picture: Colin Murty

Liberal Party insiders in Western Australia are already mulling whether TV personality and City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas should be made leader, with Mr Zempilas now considered a near certainty to join the party within the next fortnight.

While Mr Zempilas insists no decision has been made about his future, there are few doubts among party members and MPs that the former talkback radio host and sports commentator will announce his intention to run for the historically blue-ribbon seat of Churchlands soon.

The debate has now turned from if Mr Zempilas will run, to when would be the right time for him to take over the party leadership from Libby Mettam.

Some believe that Mr Zempilas could be appointed party leader as early as November, after parliament rises for the final time ahead of the next state election in March next year. Having a party leader who is not a member of parliament is unconventional but not without precedent, with Campbell Newman successfully navigating that path to become Queensland premier in 2012.

But there are others who believe the longer-term fortunes of both Mr Zempilas and the Liberal Party would be better served by waiting to move until after next year’s election, giving him time to gain some parliamentary experience ahead of a genuine tilt at the premiership against a Labor Party that would be seeking a fourth term in 2029.

The record-breaking obliteration of the Liberal Party at the 2021 state election – which left the party with just two of 59 lower house seats – means its success at next year’s election is viewed more in terms of how many seats it can claw back, rather than whether it can claim power.

One senior party figure, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the decision on whether to make Mr Zempilas leader before the election would hinge on how many extra seats he could deliver.

If Mr Zempilas’s leadership meant the party could emerge with 15 or more seats, as opposed to the nine or 10 under current projections, that could be enough to prompt a leadership change.

“There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind that he is running,” the insider said.

“Ultimately, I suspect that (the leadership) is where it will go.”

Another senior figure said Mr Zempilas as leader could make a huge difference to the party’s election results.

“If you stuck his head on a corflute outside a polling booth in Forrestfield, more people there will know Basil Zempilas than Roger Cook, and certainly more than Libby Mettam,” he said.

“That alone is enough for most powerbrokers, MPs, preselectors and donors.”

Others, however, are adamant that Ms Mettam deserves to hold on to the leadership, noting she has done a good job since taking the reins and has worked hard in the role.

“I’m absolutely confident she will lead the party to the next election,” the source said.

Mr Zempilas’s political ambitions were originally viewed with mirth by many in WA politics but he has been taken increasingly ­seriously since becoming Lord Mayor in 2020.

He has repeatedly tangled with the state government, securing wins for the city over plans for a pool at the WACA and an attempted raid by the state on the city’s parking levy fund. He is in an ongoing spat with the Cook government about a Northbridge women’s refuge centre that closed last year.

Incumbent Libby Mettam is seen as having done well since taking over the WA Liberal leadership last year.

While Ms Mettam is seen as having done well since taking over the leadership from David Honey last year, she cannot match Mr Zempilas for public profile.

The nomination deadline for the seat of Churchlands is February 28. Party rules require anyone standing for preselection to have been a member of the party for at least 30 days, meaning Mr Zempilas will have to have filed his paperwork by January 29.

The expectation is that Mr Zempilas’s decision to join the party will be splashed on the front page of The West Australian – the daily newspaper of his long-term employer, Seven West Media, and for whom he writes a weekly column – on Saturday January 27.

Speaking on ABC radio on Tuesday, Mr Zempilas confirmed he was continuing to weigh up his future.

“There is a deadline for those sorts of considerations and it is towards the end of this month or very early next month, and I’ve been taking some time to make those considerations,” he said

“As yet I haven’t settled on what my future will be in that space … I don’t think I’ve ever ruled it out and I certainly haven’t ruled it in either.”

Beyond his brand recognition and capacity to secure financial support – two things the party desperately needs – a key attraction of Mr Zempilas has been his connections to Seven West Media and its billionaire proprietor Kerry Stokes.

Seven West owns both the state’s only daily newspaper and its highest-rating television station, and there is a lingering obsession within the Liberal Party over what they believe was the paper’s favourable coverage of Labor and Mark McGowan during the Covid years and the 2021 election campaign.

But there are also some concerns within the party about how Mr Zempilas will manage his close connections to one of WA’s most influential business figures.

“If the interests of the Liberal Party and the interests of Kerry Stokes are divergent, can you trust him to put the party first?,” one party source said.

Mr Zempilas’s path into parliament and, potentially, the leadership has opened with neither support nor opposition from the party’s established factional players. Party insiders say the powerbrokers have viewed Mr Zempilas’s push with a mix of acquiescence and openness, recognising the difference that he could make to the party’s ­fortunes.

The scale of the Liberals’ 2021 election defeat saw it lose its status as official opposition party to the Nationals, who emerged with four lower house seats. The defection of Merome Beard from the Nationals to the Liberals late last year evened the parties’ lower house numbers, but the Nationals to date have not let go of the ­opposition leadership despite their inferior numbers in the upper house.