Western Australian Liberal leader Libby Mettam has announced she will be step down as the party’s leader following the poor showing at the state election.
In a statement Mettam said that after speaking with her colleagues she had accepted it was time for her to move on from the leadership role.
“I made a commitment to consult my colleagues before making a decision on my continued leadership,” Mettam said.
“I thank my colleagues for their public support and their considered advice to me.
“While the election result delivered an historically significant 18 per cent plus swing against Labor it did not translate into a gain of seats as we had hoped.”
Ahead of the election some conservative commentators had suggested that the Liberals might increase their representation in the Legislative Assembly from three seats to as many as twenty, but on election night it became clear that despite a significant swing only a handful of seats were going to fall the Liberal’s way.
Current counting a week and a half after polling day has the Liberals with six seats and the potential to win as many as eight.
The results for Albany are expected to be known later today following a full preference count. It is expected that controversial candidate Dr Thomas Brough might pull through. In Kalamunda potential new Liberal member Adam Hort is ahead by just 83 votes, according to the latest updates.
Mettam said questions over her leadership in late 2024 had given Labor an advantage at the election.
“While I take responsibility for our result it is very clear that the constant and ongoing leadership speculation and destabilisation in late 2024 was a significant contributing factor to our outcome.” she said.
The party’s MPs will meet next week to nominate a new leader and it is anticipated that media personality and City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas, who was elected to the seat of Churchlands, will nominate for the leadership position.
In late 2024 there were calls for Mettam to hand over the leadership position to Zempilas after private polling showed he had more popularity. It was later revealed that the poll had been organised by Cam Sinclair who had managed Zempilas’ mayoral campaigns. Zempilas denied any knowledge of the poll being commissioned.
Libby Mettam said she intended to nominate for the Deputy leadership position at next week’s meeting. She remains the only Liberal member in the lower house to have any previous parliamentary experience. Former leader David Honey retired at the election, and Merome Beard who defected from The Nationals was not returned.
