WA state election: Federal Liberals stay away as fears grow of rout

The WA Liberals need all the help they can get against Mark McGowan, but their party ‘friends’ are missing in action.

WA Liberal Party leader Zak Kirkup at the party's campaign launch with federal minister Michaelia Cash. Picture: Colin Murty

Most West Australian federal Liberal MPs are steering clear of their embattled state counterparts as the party heads towards a potentially generational defeat at the upcoming election.

While WA has become a Liberal stronghold federally, only a handful of the MPs and senators representing WA in Canberra bothered to show their face at Monday’s official launch of the Liberal Party’s WA election ­campaign.

The WA Liberals need all the help they can get against wildly popular Premier Mark Mc­Gowan, but fewer than half of the 17 federal MPs and senators from the state turned up.

Yet the mood inside the riverside function centre was surprisingly upbeat. Despite Liberal leader Zak Kirkup having admitted last week the election was lost, and despite Newspoll predicting a massive swing to the Labor government, the room was full and the applause generous as he tried to rally the faithful.

Mr Kirkup at the party's campaign launch. Picture: Colin Murty

Among those who did show was Employment Minister Michaelia Cash. She was the opening act for the launch, getting the crowd pumping with what was presumably a rhetorical question when she called out “how good are the WA Liberals?”.

She compared the current bleak outlook for the party at the March 13 election to Scott Morrison’s triumph in 2019, noting that the party did not stop until the final vote was cast.

She told The Australian that while the state Liberals were “clearly the underdogs”, she would support her colleagues to win as many seats as possible.

“I urge all Liberal candidates to campaign hard for every single vote until 6pm on polling day. We must never give up the fight,” she said. Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ben Morton was the second- highest profile federal MP to attend. ­Attorney-General Christian Porter, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt were notable absentees.

A spokeswoman for Liberal frontbencher Melissa Price said the Durack MP would not be campaigning in the lead-up to the state election.

The non-attendance of ­Andrew Hastie, who last week ­described as a “lemon” Mr Kirkup’s policy to close the state’s coal-fired power plants from 2025, was unsurprising, but he has committed to campaigning with his state colleagues.

Scott Morrison won’t be visiting WA during the campaign, and many in the Liberal Party believe that is the result of Mr Kirkup’s energy policy and its contradiction to the federal stance.

Anthony Albanese will visit the state this week although, with Mr McGowan enjoying popularity ratings the federal Opposition Leader could only dream of, it is not immediately clear who has the most to gain from the visit. “He’s the federal Opposition Leader, he is more than entitled to visit Western Australia. The Prime Minister is welcome as well,” Mr McGowan said.

WA Labor frontbenchers Josh Wilson, Matt Keogh, Madeline King and Patrick Gorman have been campaigning alongside their state colleagues. The federal MPs are also planning to visit polling booths on election day.

With less than two weeks to the election, Mr Kirkup used his address at the campaign launch to reiterate what he said were the dangers of Labor controlling both houses of WA’s parliament.

He also defended his decision to concede he would not win the election. “I ­appreciate that, for some, it was difficult to hear,” he said. “But if it means that we need to make sure the people of our state understand what is at stake, if it is important for us to make sure that we get as many Liberals across the line as possible, if it is important to make sure that what stands ­between total control from the Labor Party and the future of the state, and this is the sacrifice I need to make, then it is worth it.”