WA Premier Roger Cook looks to possible date change as double election looms in the west

Premier Roger Cook is investigating moving the fixed date of WA’s next election to avoid an anti-incumbent wave hitting him before Anthony Albanese.

Anthony Albanese, left, and Roger Cook on Monday. Picture: Martin Ollman, NewsWire/Michael Wilson, The West Australian

West Australian Premier Roger Cook is investigating moving the fixed date of WA’s next election to avoid an anti-incumbent wave hitting him before Anthony Albanese, amid growing concerns that whoever goes to the polls first risks a backlash over the Prime Minister’s waning popularity.

Mr Cook shocked the state on Monday when he said he had sought legal advice on whether he could change the March 8 date for next year’s WA election, leading to accusations he was trying to “gerrymander” the vote.

Both Liberal and Labor MPs at a state and federal level believe Mr Cook’s real intention is to minimise the damage to his team from an increasingly unpopular federal Labor government.

One Labor insider told The Australian that the dominant parliamentary numbers enjoyed by the Cook government in WA and Labor’s slender majority federally meant it made sense for WA to go first and wear any backlash against Mr Albanese.

“I fundamentally believe it would be in everyone’s best interest to hold (the federal election) after the state election,” one Labor source said.

“(The Albanese government) can probably weather it better by being on the other side of the state election.”

While other Labor insiders said they believed WA voters would differentiate between state and federal elections, the party successfully leveraged off the popularity of then-premier Mark McGowan when they picked up four federal seats in WA in 2022.

West Australians are due to vote in the state election on March 8, under the state’s fixed four-year terms. WA is also shaping as a key battleground at the next federal election, with Labor’s ability to hold on to the four seats it gained in the west in 2022 likely to determine whether Mr Albanese and Labor can hold on to power.

The state opposition has long been quietly hoping for the state election to be held before the federal poll, in the hope that building discontent in WA towards Mr Albanese and his government can boost the Liberals’ and Nationals’ performance at a state level.

Speaking at a business breakfast in Perth on Monday morning, Mr Cook said he had made inquiries about the potential to reschedule the next state election.

“We have to be ready for any contingency,” Mr Cook said. “We have a limited ability to switch our election date if the federal election comes in on top of that … We’re doing a lot of work at the moment, and the Electoral Commission is doing a lot of work, just understanding what some of those complexities might be in the event that the federal government decides to have an election close to ours.”

Mr Cook denied having any preference on whether the state election is held before or after the federal vote.

“I don’t care,” he said. “My focus is on Western Australians, and I think Western Australians understand the difference between the federal and state government, and we’ll continue to make sure that we put our case to the people of Western Australia about the importance of re-electing a WA Labor government,” he said.

One Labor insider said the likelihood of a federal election before the WA vote had dropped sharply in the past month, as the Prime Minister was battered over accusations he had sought and received more than 20 upgrades on Qantas flights including when he was serving as transport minister.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese must decide a date for the federal election next year. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

Setting a federal election date so close to the WA election could also alienate voters in a key state. And there are deep concerns about the capacity of both the parties and the electoral commission to handle two elections so close together in WA.

Under the WA system, the date of the election can only be changed by one week in the event a federal election is scheduled for the same day.

The date can only be moved by more than that in exceptional circumstances and with agreement between the government and opposition.

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam said Mr Cook’s inquiries about shifting the date was the latest example of his government trying to “gerrymander” the rules to suit their electoral interests.

One of the government’s first acts after its resounding 2021 election win was to remove regional representation in the upper house, greatly boosting Labor’s prospects of securing control of both houses again in the future.

Ms Mettam said her party would be ready for the election whenever it happened.

“We’ve seen Roger Cook prioritise his own political skin ahead of the interests of Western Australian taxpayers,” she said.

“Western Australians who are engaged would be anticipating and expecting an election in March, and certainly, as a party, we are prepared and ready for that election in March as well.”

WA Liberal Leader Libby Mettam. Picture: NewsWire/Emma Kirk

WA Opposition leader Shane Love.

Any agreement to shift the date of the election would have to be reached between Mr Cook and Nationals leader Shane Love, who is the official opposition leader in WA. The Liberals held just two of 59 lower house seats after the 2021 election to the Nationals’ four, making the Nationals the recognised party of opposition.

Mr Love said it was “inconceivable” that Mr Albanese would schedule a federal election on the same date as WA and it would be a “final, striking display of his disregard for WA”.

While Labor’s dominant parliamentary numbers in WA all but assure the party of victory at the next state election, Mr Cook on Monday said a string of recent election results – including Queensland, New Zealand and the US – showed nothing was certain.

“It’s clear that incumbents, both progressive and conservative, have struggled in recent elections,” Mr Cook said.