Premier Roger Cook is waiting to see the results of the election count in Fremantle before announcing who’ll be getting ministerial positions in his new team for Labor’s third term.
Simone McGurk the Minister Workforce, Training, Industrial Relations and Water has scraped ahead in the race for Fremantle. The latest update has her just 31 votes ahead of independent challenger Kate Hulett.
Since Saturday Hulet has been in the pole position for the seat, but as postal and absentee votes are being counted the incumbent Labor minister has clawed her way back. The result is an impressive one for Hulett, given McGurk previous held the seat with a 27.3 per cent margin.
With several previous ministers in his team retiring at the election there’s promotions up for grabs in the government.
Upper House MP Matthew Swinbourn, former unions boss Meredith Hammat, and Kingsley MP Jessica Stojkovski have all been suggested as the members most likely to be given new Ministerial roles. If McGurk is not returned there may also be opportunities for Kimberly MP Divina D’Anna.
On the Liberal side there’s also a long wait and growing leadership challenge speculation. The party has said the first step will be working out who their members are and it may be sometime before that becomes clear.
Labor have conceded defeat in Albany with current member Rebecca Stephens acknowledging she’s out of the race. Who the seat will go to is now a race between the Nationals Scott Leary and controversial Liberal candidate Dr Tom Brough. A full preference count may be needed to work out who is the winner.
Current leader Libby Mettam has argued that the party needs to back a leader all the way to the 2029 state election and bring an end to the ongoing leadership speculation. Some colleagues have baulked at that comment noting that Mettam replaced former leader David Honey during the last term.
New Churchlands MP Basil Zempilas, who will be relinquishing his role as Lord Mayor of Perth, has not ruled out putting his hand up to be the party’s leader going forward.
The current counting suggests the Liberal party has increased their representation from two seats to potentially seven seats, but three election loses has left them with a team that is still spread thin across portfolios and short on parliamentary experiences.
On election night former federal Indigenous Affair Minister Ken Wyatt suggested that Zempilas should focus on learning about how the parliament works and building up experience in the house before looking to leadership aspirations.
Appearing on ABC Drive with Gary Adshead on Friday ahead of people heading to the polls Insiders host David Speers and the West Australian’s Chief reporter Ben Harvey discussed the possibility of a leadership challenge.
Harvey said he thought Mettam would stay in the leadership role, but noted that Zempilas desire to become the leader was significant.
“I think what will happen is in Basil’s perfect world , Libby retains as Opposition Leader as then two years out, when the writings on the wall, the backroom dealers will tap her on the shoulder and say ‘We can do it the easy way or the hard way”.
“She’ll say ‘the hard way’, because they always do, and then Basil will, just through sheer force of character, become the opposition leader and sprint to the finish in 2029.”
Adshead disagreed describing Zempilas as a “caged tiger” who would not be able to wait that long to take the reins.
“This is a man whose never stood in state parliament before, I don’t know how many times Basil’s actually been in state parliament.” Harvey replied.
“Once you see that bear-pit in action, and how good Labor is at hating, how good they are at hate. Then you might start thinking it’s better to have a straw man or a straw women there for a while until I get match fit.”
“He’s great on a soundbite, but there are certain sort of technicalities of the parliament that’s he’s going to have to learn, and he could come unstuck really quickly, really early.” Harvey said.
Speers said Zempilas said was untested in the role, and would be an unknown for the Liberal party.
