Big spend highlights Liberals’ hunger for western suburbs seat as WA polls draw to a close

Senior MPs have delivered their final election pitches to voters in Western Australia – which could again prove a decisive battleground that determines whether the Coalition can stage an against-odds comeback, or whether Labor is returned to government in minority or majority form.

Speaking while travelling between booths in his marginal electorate of Canning, opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said Labor had forgotten about outer suburban and regional Australians.

People voting in the federal seat of Curtin at West Leederville Primary School.Credit: Colin Murty

“We’re the ones who have to make sense of his uncontrolled migration, we’re the ones who have to deal with the housing crisis, the lack of infrastructure, the lack of services, the lack of health care, and we need change,” he said.

But standing alongside WA Premier Roger Cook at Wellard Primary School in her seat of Brand, south of Perth, Resources Minister Madeleine King said the choice between Labor and the Coalition was clear.

“A choice between the Albanese Labor government who wants to build Australia’s future, or Peter Dutton’s volatile Liberal Party and National coalition that will simply cut and cut and cut,” she said.

Asked about the likelihood of a minority government, King said Labor was working toward a majority government.

“We have invested in Western Australia, have invested in Australia, and believe in Australians,” she said.

Labor has relied heavily on the popularity of Cook in this campaign, and he was again wheeled out in the party’s safest seat.

“Albo is a friend of WA. He’s come to Western Australia more times than the last four prime ministers combined,” the WA premier said.

Apart from some lengthy waits at booths in Curtin on Saturday morning, voting opened without any hitches in WA and, according to both major parties, the behaviour of rank and file members at the booths has been cordial.

Curtin Liberal candidate Tom White approves his democracy sausage.Credit: Colin Murty

Curtin remains one of the most fascinating contests in the state, and candidates traded barbs after casting their votes this morning.

After voting at West Leederville Primary School at 8.30am (10.30am AEST), teal independent Kate Chaney said the attack ads had been “thicker and faster and more desperate than last time”.

“That’s understandable, because I think the major parties are deeply threatened by the idea of a parliament that actually holds them to account,” she said.

But her Liberal opponent, former Uber executive Tom White, said that was politics.

Kate Chaney casts her ballot.Credit: Colin Murty

“What I’ve discovered is that it’s very hard to avoid criticism and scrutiny when you’re a political candidate,” he said.

“I’ve been on the receiving end of it myself, but I’m not a whinger. I’m not a complainer. That’s life. The stakes are very high.”

Later this afternoon, Chaney told this masthead conversations with voters over the course of the day indicated the advertising may have been counterproductive, with most believing it was evidence of a policy vacuum.

“It’s another example of the two major parties being disconnected from the issues people care about and playing politics, not policy — and the public have a real thirst for more statesman like and position long-term leadership,” she said.

Both parties have reportedly spent more than $1 million on their respective campaigns in Curtin.

The Liberals are desperate to win back the formerly blue-ribbon seat, which was once held by former foreign minister Julie Bishop.

White has focused much of his campaign in the middle-class suburbs in the northern portion of the affluent electorate, where White has said climate has taken a back seat to the rising cost of living and housing affordability.

But this masthead spoke with several young families who raised climate action as a key issue underpinning their vote and women like engineer and mother-of-two Heather, who was not convinced by the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy.

“I’m sceptical about the costings and can’t see it gaining ground any time soon,” she told this masthead.

Heather, who asked her last name not be used, is voting in the WA seat of Curtin. She says both parties need to move faster in addressing fossil fuel use and climate change.Credit: Jesinta Burton

“It’s just not a solution - we need to stop extracting fossil fuels now, not wait another decade.”

To the east of the city, in the nation’s newest seat Bullwinkel, the tight three-cornered contest between Nationals’ Mia Davies, Liberal Matt Moran and Labor’s Trish Cook means booth entries are chockers with party faithful.

Another political force is also making its presence felt with Keep the Sheep protesters also handing out flyers to vote Liberal, National or One Nation.

These are all parties that have all agreed to scrap the Albanese government’s live sheep export ban in 2028.

Kojonup wool producer Dot Binckes was at the Forrestfield Primary School booth with her daughter Teale Mohen with a big basket of wool, urging punters to put Labor last.

She said she would much rather be on her farm today, but this issue was too important to not act.

“With the political environment at the moment, if Labor is returned tomorrow, I will basically not exist anymore. I will not be a farmer anymore,” she said.

All three Bullwinkel candidates had cast their vote by 9am on Saturday around the electorate, which captures Perth’s hills region and extends east to the central Wheatbelt.

Moran said he had been focused on his own campaign.

“I can only control what I am in control of, and I’ve focused on my own campaign,” he said.

“I’ve actually focused on door knocking as many people as I can, meeting people, as many people meeting as many people as I can, and also just listening to their concerns.”

Davies told WAtoday the seat could go either way and would likely be decided on preferences.

Davies’ shot at the seat would have been boosted had she urged Nationals voters to vote for Labor above Coalition partner Moran on her how-to-vote card but both her and Moran preferenced each other.

“You couldn’t possibly preference the Labor Party with the policy decisions like drawing a red line through the live export industry, making it more difficult for our resource sector and adding red and green tape for our small businesses,” she said.

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