‘We have limited resources and … the seat of Perth is a Labor stronghold,’ Julie Bishop says

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Liberal party is crying poor, arguing that a lack of resources is behind the decision not to contest either of Western Australia’s upcoming byelections.

With a federal election due within the next 12 months, and the Liberals battening down to protect Canning, Swan and Pearce to keep Andrew Hastie, Steve Irons and Christian Porter in parliament, the party has decided to forsake entering the upcoming Perth and Fremantle byelections.

The Liberal party received $95m in donations in the 2016-17 financial year, including Malcolm Turnbull’s $1.75m donation, with $37m going to the federal branch. Labor received $71m in donations over the same period, with $33m going to its federal branch.

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Julie Bishop, who also moved quickly to quash rumours that Porter was making a move for her own, safer, seat of Curtin, said it made sense to direct resources to winnable seats.

“We have limited resources and we also know that the seat of Perth is a Labor stronghold,” she said. “The government has not won a byelection off an opposition seat since 1911. We have to be realistic.

“Even at the height of the anti-Western Australian campaign of the Rudd-Gillard government, when they had the mining tax and the carbon tax and their border protection out of control, the people of Perth still returned a Labor member.

“Even when we had 57% of the two-party-preferred vote, the Perth people still returned a Labor member to the seat of Perth … We are focusing our resources on the general election, which will be held in 2019.”

Bishop laughed off suggestions that Porter was coming for her seat.

The attorney general said he had been approached about switching to another seat* but had “unequivocally said no”.



“My office is down the road, my home is in the electorate,” he said of Pearce. “This is where I live. It’s a place that I love ... I’m not going anywhere.”

Bishop confirmed she was the “only candidate for preselection in the seat of Curtin”: “Christian is the only candidate for the seat of Pearce and is doing a magnificent job.”

Labor’s Tim Hammond announced this month that he was resigning as the MP for Perth to focus on his young family.

Josh Wilson, the member for Fremantle, was part of a cohort of Labor MPs forced to resign after a high court decision went against the Labor senator Katy Gallagher’s definition of reasonable steps required to divest oneself of dual citizenship, sparking byelections in Braddon and Longman, as well as Mayo, held by the crossbencher Rebekha Sharkie.

The Liberals improved their showing in Perth at the last election, with Hammond eventually winning on the back of Greens preferences. Labor holds the seat with a 3.3% margin and the Greens decision to run a candidate in the upcoming byelection is one of the reasons the Liberals pulled out.

Wilson increased Labor’s margin in Fremantle at the last election, giving himself a 7.5% margin.

Labor has made much of Turnbull’s perceived unpopularity in the west, with the prime minister having limited his trips to the state. Before the federal budget Turnbull headed to WA to announce a $3.2bn infrastructure spend in the state.

He said the decision not to contest the two byelections was one for the state division.

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The party plans on contesting Longman in Queensland and winning Mayo in South Australia, which would give the Coalition government a three-seat buffer heading into the next general election.

Georgina Downer is expected to win preselection in Mayo, while the one-term state Liberal National party MP Trevor Ruthenberg is one of the names being floated for Longman, with the former member Wyatt Roy making it known far and wide he is not interested in returning to politics just yet.

Longman in particular is shaping up as the biggest fight of the byelection Super Saturday, with One Nation confirming it will not direct preferences Labor’s way unless the party puts the Greens last, and Labor returning fire by confirming it will place One Nation last.

One Nation preferences helped get Labor across the line in the November’s state election, despite Pauline Hanson’s party having no formal preference deal in the vast majority of seats.

*An earlier version of this story suggested Christian Porter had said he had been approached about moving to Curtin. He had been approached about moving to ‘a seat’