Libs split over refusal to run in by-election for Perth

Tensions are mounting in West Australian Liberal Party ranks over a decision not to contest the vacated Labor federal seat of Perth.

West Australian senator Dean Smith.

Tensions are mounting in West Australian Liberal Party ranks over a decision not to contest the vacated Labor federal seat of Perth, with dissenters likely to take their concerns to a state council meeting next weekend.

WA senator Dean Smith, who has strongly criticised the decision as “a free kick to Bill Shorten” says he won’t let the issue go and feels “emboldened” to challenge Liberal powerbrokers, including Special Minister of State Matthias Cormann at state council on Saturday.

Senator Cormann was due to front a meeting of Liberal Party faithful on Saturday to explain the party’s decision to focus its “limited’ party resources on winning back the state seat of Darling Range for the Liberals, but not contest the federal seat of Perth made vacant by the sudden resignation of Labor’s Tim Hammond.

In a perceived snub to Senator Smith and others who strongly support running a federal candidate, the Perth division meeting — at which party bosses faced hostility over the “no” decision — was brought forward by several hours from 11.30am to 8am. As a result, about 30 party members, including Senator Smith, turned up after the meeting had finished.

“They knew I was in Sydney and that I was arriving back at around 11,” he said yesterday. Senator Smith said a couple of supporters had rung him the night before and alerted him to the earlier time, but he had received no formal notice and it was too late to change flights to Perth.

“I won’t play the victim card, but people can see this for what it is,” he said yesterday. “A lot of Liberals have told me they are outraged by the change of meeting time.”

He said the Liberal Party was turning its back on 35,000 Perth voters who gave the Liberals their first preference in the inner-metropolitan seat in the 2016 ­federal election. Mr Hammond won on Greens preferences, but Liberal candidate Jeremy Quinn won 42 per cent of the primary vote. Held continuously by Labor since 1983, the seat is now considered to be held by Labor on a 3.3 per cent margin.

“Why is the Liberal Party giving Bill Shorten a free kick in WA just when voters are waking up to him? This decision has been taken by a narrow group in the state executive and they’ve taken the wrong decision,” Senator Smith said.

Liberal Party state director Sam Calabrese said the Perth division meeting had been for “grassroots lay party members” and that people who had registered their intention to attend were notified of the time change. “It’s always disappointing when people choose to voice their opinions in the media,” he said.

The Perth by-election is one of five yet to be officially called, with Speaker Tony Smith consulting various parties over a suitable date.

Senator Smith said it was not too late to select a Perth candidate. “Running candidates is a core Liberal value, and we should not be ­ignoring our voter base,’’ he said.

But Mr Calabrese said the party was “100 per cent focused” on the more winnable state seat of Darling Range, where voters will go to the polls on June 23. Traditionally a Liberal stamping ground, the Hills’ electorate was won back for Labor last year by MP Barry Urban, who resigned in disgrace over a sham military medals scandal earlier this month.

The federal member for Hasluck, Ken Wyatt, part of whose electorate overlaps with Darling Range, took out large ads at the weekend to tell residents about the Turnbull government’s multibillion-dollar aged care and road and train infrastructure.