A NOTRE DAME political analyst says Labor’s Patrick Gorman is likely to win Perth easily at the May 3 federal election but has praised the Liberal Party’s choice of candidate.

Only four candidates have put their hands up for Perth, including (in ballot order) Peter Hallifax (Pauline Hanson’s One Nation), Susanna Panaia (Liberal), Sophie Greer (The Greens WA) and Patrick Gorman (Labor).

Notre Dame head of politics Martin Drum doesn’t expect much of a change from recent years, particularly following Labor’s results from the recent state election.

“This is, to be honest, a bit more of a safe Labor seat at the moment,” Prof Drum said.

“Especially how they’re tracking and expect probably Patrick Gorman to retain that seat.

“I think the Perth electorate is a big electorate. 

“It’s quite diverse, but they’ll be exposed by the same cost of living issues and housing issues that a lot of other electorates will. 

“The electorate contains both inner city areas, which are quite well to do, but expands a fair way beyond the city centre as well, so the candidates need to be across a diverse range of issues.”

Prof Drum praised the Liberal Party’s choice of Susanna Panaia, whose profile notes time spent shaping federal policies supporting small business.

“If you ask me, small business people should be the vanguard of the Liberal Party, that’s how they should be advertising themselves,” Prof Drum said.

“I’m surprised they haven’t probably put more of those types in other electorates, because that’s sort of like a self-employed person who is just trying to get things going, facing difficulties with tax and regulation, all that sorts of things should be natural Liberal Party voters.”

Mr Gorman has represented his hometown’s electorate since 2018.

With multiple assistant ministerial titles under his belt, Mr Gorman enters this election as both a familiar face in his community and an influential voice within the wider Albanese government. 

His 2025 campaign titled “Local values, national results”, focuses on education, strengthening Medicare and addressing the rising cost of living.

As the son of two teachers and beneficiary of public high school and tertiary education, Mr Gorman said he recognises the importance of “quality accessible education”. 

Gonski

”One of the things that’s always stuck with me about education is when David Gonski, 14 years ago, did that review into education funding,” Mr Gorman said.

“He himself said he expected to go and see a public education system where there was lots of inefficiency and waste, and what he actually saw was a system that delivered incredible value for money and would deliver even more value with a small amount of additional funding,” Mr Gorman said.

“I was worried about what we saw when Peter Dutton, just over a week ago, said that they would look at reducing funding for the education department federally. 

“The federal education department sets our standards. 

“It ensures the funding agreements that the Commonwealth signs with the states are implemented, which means making sure the money that we give to the states gets to the classroom… that what we try to do in terms of lifting literacy and numeracy flows through.”

Labor has pledged $10 billion to build 100,000 homes over eight years for first home buyers, but has delivered less than 500 of the 30,000 it promised at the 2022 election.

Mr Gorman admits they weren’t able to legislate the Housing Australia Future Fund as quickly as it hoped, but puts the blame on The Greens for holding it up in the  Senate.

“In some ways it was even more annoying when they did eventually vote for it, they couldn’t really justify why they held it up, and because it was a fund that used the returns from those investments, it was always going to take an additional year before we can start to get those returns into the market,” he said.

He says Perth has benefited from the legislation finally getting through Parliament, with 37 places at The Hub next to Perth Arena.

“I went and visited one.

“We had a very kind new tenant, Thea.

“She really clearly said ‘if it wasn’t for this, I was going to have to move back home to Karratha’ with her family and she would have to finish her Tafe studies.”

He said Labor’s plan to reduce home deposits to 5 per cent would help get more young people into homes.

Mr Gorman said Australians had for generations expected to rent independently for a while after moving out of the family home before being able to purchase a place of their own.

“That story has started to break down, and when I talk to young people they go ‘I’m not even going to bother saving because I won’t ever be able to get there’.

“And that’s why what we announced yesterday, at the campaign launch, is so important – that 5 per cent deposit really means that people will be able to get a home without decades of savings.” 

Mr Gorman says he hopes to see affordable housing as a core part of the redevelopment of the Edith Cowan University campus when it moves to the CBD.

The Chook reached out to the Liberal and Greens candidates but haven’t heard back yet, while Mr Hallifax hadn’t yet appeared on his party’s list of candidates and couldn’t be contacted.

by MATILDE GRANADO PIRES MOREIRA