WA Liberals to pull the plug on powerbrokers

Nick Goiran and Peter Collier both said they would support an overhaul that would give party members a greater say in the nomination of candidates.

WA Premier Mark McGowan with ALP caucus members. Picture: Colin Murty

The WA Liberal Party’s two purported powerbrokers have both agreed to an overhaul of the party’s preselection process in the wake of the historic election drubbing at the weekend.

Nick Goiran and Peter Collier, who several current and former colleagues have accused of having a disproportionate influence on the party and its selection of candidates, both told The Australian they would support an overhaul that would give party members a greater say in nominations. The party’s historic defeat saw it win just two seats in WA’s lower house. Its previous worst return was the 13 seats it won in the 2017 election.

Mr Goiran and Mr Collier had come under fire before the election, with the likes of Mike Nahan, John McGrath and Dean Nalder — who all announced plans to retire from politics before the vote — having spoken out over their perceived influence on the party.

In comments that further highlight disunity within the Liberal Party’s diminished ranks as they face the difficult task of turning around their fortunes and building an effective opposition, Mr Goiran said he was not opposed to preselection reform but criticised the work ethic of unnamed colleagues.

“I’ve long been of the view that our preselection process would be enhanced by some form of plebiscite model,” he said in his first public comments since the election drubbing. “However, I remain totally unimpressed by those who after each election use party reviews as a smokescreen for their unwillingness to do any of the heavy lifting in parliament or in our community.”

Mr Collier has similarly advocated for members to have a greater say over the pres­elections but he challenged the suggestion he had a disproportionate influence over the party, saying he was no powerbroker and had not spoken to anyone in the Liberal partyroom about its leadership last year.

“I am an active member of the party. That’s where it begins and ends. I do not manipulate, I do not control,” he said. “Because I’ve been in the party my entire adult life, inevitably I’m going to have some input and people will seek advice from me, and I frequently get people who ask me for advice about standing. I like to mentor and assist, and I see that as my role, but I’m not a puppet master.”

He said the party’s record loss was overwhelmingly the result of COVID-19 and Premier Mark McGowan’s handling of the pandemic. “They idolise Mark McGowan over here, and it didn’t matter if we had Churchill as leader and Margaret Thatcher as deputy, he would have won in a canter,” he said.

The influence of Mr Goiran and Mr Collier has been under growing scrutiny in the days since the party’s electoral wipe-out.

Mr Nahan told The Australian this week that Mr Collier and Mr Goiran “had to go”, blaming their influence on the party’s difficulties to attract the sorts of candidates that would appeal to typical Liberal voters who abandoned the party at the last election.

“Our party is a grassroots party but it’s dominated by power­brokers who have infiltrated the grassroots with their own people so they can control preselections and, ultimately, the votes for leaders and other issues in the partyroom,” he said.

Mr Goiran’s perceived control over preselections in Perth’s southern suburbs has been singled out. At least five former candidates and members of the Christian Democratic Party — including Mr Goiran — stood for the Liberals at the election, while others had strong public ties to the church.

The McGowan government, meanwhile, on Wednesday held its first meeting in the Parliament House dining room after its 75 upper and lower house MPs were unable to fit into the partyroom.