WA Liberals have supported the establishment of a WAxit committee at their annual State conference this morning, despite one party member warning there was a risk of being labelled the “lunatic fringe”.

The push, launched by the party's Brand division, will see a committee of six members investigate WA becoming a "financially independent State".

The motion, supported by State president Norman Moore, but not by leader Mike Nahan was passed 89 votes to 73.

Camera Icon Mike Nahan did not support the vote for a WAxit investigation. Credit: Nic Ellis, The West Australian

News of the committee made national headlines late last week, with West Australians expressing support amid a GST crisis.

The motion to consider a “WAxit” was put forward by former candidate for the seat of Brand Rick Palmer, who said the state continued to be mistreated by the federal government.

“The bottom line is the federation has started to treat WA like a golden goose, and they are all vampires, sucking at our jugular vein,” Mr Palmer said.

Senior Liberals had expected the motion to investigate seceding to win support at the conference.

“It tells them that Western Australians, particularly Liberal party Western Australians, are not happy with the way in which WA is being treated,” Mr Moore said.

“The GST is symptomatic of that but it is more than that. Because we’re a long way from Canberra, we feel that we’re being ignored and our interests aren’t being taken into consideration by both sides of politics.”

Although he voted no, Mr Nahan said the motion was well-warranted as “an expression of underlying frustration”.

Seeking GST reform was preferable to severing ties with the rest of the nation, he said.

“We need to work within the family,” he said.

“Fix our federation, don’t bust it.”

WA would become the 10th biggest republic in the world by area if it did secede, although by population it would rank 14th.

But there are genuine concerns about the economic impacts of such a move, with WA having to take on a large chunk of federal debt with any such move.

WA’s extra share of GST might amount to a few billion dollars, while the share of national debt would be more than $50 billion.