The WA Liberals are on a one-way ticket to electoral Armageddon at the next Federal election, right?

If a stack of recent polling is to be believed, WA Federal Liberals face big troubles, with Turnbull Government ministers Christian Porter, Michael Keenan and Ken Wyatt all at risk of losing their seats.

Those polls show thumping swings against the coalition based on the current general unhappiness with Malcolm Turnbull — an unhappiness that is now particularly acute in WA thanks to anger over the GST and a cheerless local economy.

There’s a big “but” here. Those polls fail to take into account a significant factor: the ability of WA Labor to put up And there’s something happening inside WA Labor right now that will prove crucial to how the party selects and vets its candidates for Canberra.

For the better part of the past decade left-wing unions have dominated WA Labor, giving them the choice pick of State and Federal candidates and a near free hand in party administration.

This was a result of the numbers held by Left union United Voice, which was able to hold sway, mostly through a loose alliance with the metal workers’ union.

The bulk of Premier Mark McGowan’s ministry comes from left-aligned unions. WA Labor’s No.1 Senate pick for Canberra, Sue Lines, is a former organiser for United Voice.

This Left dominance is something unique to WA. In most States — notoriously so in NSW — the Right dominates.

In April, this newspaper revealed a new grouping had been formed to challenge the long-standing dominance of the Left.

Probably with a bit of a giggle, the new faction called itself Progressive Labor.

This new grouping was essentially a marriage of the old Right unions — the Shoppies, the Transport Workers Union and the Australian Workers Union — joining forces with the more recently left-leaning Maritime Workers Union and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

The tie-up came as something of a shock. The first most State and Federal Labor MPs knew of the shift was reading about it in The West Australian.

Senior State Labor officials openly admit this new grouping now holds the numbers in the party — but only just — and question how they will use those numbers.

Opening shots have already been fired ahead of the State Labor conference at the end of the month.

Progressive Labor challenged United Voice head Carolyn Smith for the State presidency of the party, putting forward MUA official Adrian Evans. When Evans lost, Progressive Labor claimed ballots had been shredded and lodged an appeal.

Last week it looked like Progressive Labor had won its way in dictating the make-up of the top executive positions in the State party, sparking claims from the Left that long-standing affirmative action rules had been broken.

Though it threatened, Progressive Labor stopped short of running a candidate against incumbent State secretary Patrick Gorman (the optics of rolling a State secretary who had just led the party to the most comprehensive State election victory in years would have been too ugly).

This building frisson between Right and Left is taking shape in other ways.

This week The West reported how the Left and Catholic Right of the party were set for a showdown at the State conference over a push for restrictions on protests around abortion clinics. The old Left-Right chestnut of recognition for Palestine is also set to get a run.

The next obvious step is for Progressive Labor to demand the choice pick of candidates for Lower House and Senate seats in Canberra. The Left argue they have used their power responsibly.

But just like the Right, the Left have form in picking dubious candidates for crucial seats. Who could forget United Voice’s disastrous selection of former Green Tammy Solonec as Labor’s candidate for Swan?

Pressure will now be on the Right to show it can put forward good candidates the public can stomach. How would a militant wharfie go down in an affluent seat such as Stirling for example?

Like a lead balloon, most likely.