Nationals leader David Littleproud has announced former WA opposition leader Mia Davies as the party’s best chance to win the “challenging” seat of Bullwinkel.
Littleproud told reporters at Perth Airport on Saturday morning, Davies was the “only pathway” for the Coalition to win the seat.
Western Australia needs Mia Davies and The Nationals in Canberra says party leader David Littleproud.Credit: The Nationals WA
“This is notionally a Labor seat, and it still is,” he said.
“The Coalition’s only chance to win this seat is Mia Davies.
“We’ve done extensive polling here and understand the opportunity, but the challenge is ahead of us.”
Davies was first elected to the WA upper house in 2008 before switching to the Legislative Assembly at the 2013 election.
She was a minister for water, sport and recreation and forestry in the Barnett Government then became leader of the Nationals after Brendon Grylls lost his bid to win the seat of Pilbara at the 2017 election that saw Mark McGowan become premier.
After the wipeout 2021 COVID-19 election that saw the WA Liberals reduced to just two seats, Davies found herself as leader of the opposition, a position she held until declaring in January 2023 she had “no fuel in the tank” to go beyond the 2025 election.
She said the creation of the new electorate was undoubtedly part of her reasons for continuing in politics.
“It was an opportunity that didn’t exist when I made the decision to step away from state politics,” she said.
“The other part of it is the attack by this Labor Federal Government on our state.
“This is a state that delivered the Labor Party the keys to the lodge, and yet we are the state that has borne the brunt of so much of what this government has done.”
The new seat of Bullwinkel has been carved out of existing portions of Hasluck, Canning, Durack and O’Connor.
Its boundaries will stretch from the Perth hills around Mundaring, Kalamunda and Roleystone north beyond Toodyay, east beyond York and south beyond Beverley.
The Nationals have only sent one member to the House of Representatives from WA in the past four decades.
Tony Crook was elected in 2010 for one term, replacing retiring Liberal Wilson Tuckey.
He famously sat outside the Nationals party room for the first two years of that term as an independent member of the cross bench.
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