LABOR’S hopes of snatching the new seat of Bicton at next year’s state election have suffered a blow with a resolution to Liberal in-fighting and the announcement of federal funding for the Perth Freight Link tunnel.
Bicton (the renamed and redrawn Alfred Cove) is nominally a Liberal seat on a 10 per cent margin: with local councillor Lisa O’Malley as its candidate, Labor had hoped to be campaigning against embattled WA transport minister Dean Nalder and focusing on traffic congestion anger.
Instead, Mr Nalder will contest the much safer redrawn seat of Bateman, forcing incumbent Bateman MP Matt Taylor to shift to Bicton.
• Lisa O’Malley, right, campaigning in Palmyra last week with Fremantle Labor MLA Simone McGurk. Photo supplied | O’Malley Facebook
‘Slap in the face’
Ms O’Malley, who’s been doorknocking for a month, makes the point, “unlike myself, neither Taylor or Nalder wanted to run for Bicton, which is a slap in the face to the electorate. I am passionate about representing the people who live here.”
A key campaign strategy has been knocked for six, however, with the Barnett government’s decision to dig a tunnel between the Stock-Winterfold roads intersection and the junction of Stirling Highway and High Street in Fremantle. The move substantially reduces the impact of freight on key suburbs throughout the electorate.
“Sure, the PFL is a big issue, but it’s not the only one,” an upbeat Ms O’Malley told the Herald this week.
“People are really concerned about the state of the economy and the level of state debt. I’m talking to lots of FIFO workers who have been retrenched and people worried about the stability of their jobs.”
The Herald contacted Mr Taylor for comment but, following his bruising defeat by one-time friend Mr Nalder, he was “down south” recuperating on a family holiday. A source at the Liberal state council pre-selection said Mr Taylor appeared to have had early momentum for Bateman and he delivered a convincing speech and Q&A: “It was looking good for Taylor, but then the party’s old guard kicked into gear, saying it would be a major embarrassment for the party if a senior minister was turned.
“Even before the meeting, the old boy’s club in the party were making calls and rounding up support for Nalder—they weren’t even prepared to listen to Taylor’s pitch.
“In his speech, Nalder was pushing his business connections and his fundraising capabilities.”
The Chook understands that in 2012, after Christian Porter resigned from Bateman to pursue a career in federal politics, the Liberals had mulled over a pre-selection plebiscite model that would widen the vote to include more party members, but it fell on deaf ears.
Currently, local Liberal branches appoint a small number of members to pre-select candidates on ther behalf, with that choice then having to be ratified by the party’s all-powerful state council.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK
