Basil Zempilas says he will ‘work hard’ to ensure WA Liberals win Kalgoorlie seat at next State election

Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas says he will be working hard to ensure the WA Liberals win the seat of Kalgoorlie at the next State election — but has also left the door open to either his party or the WA Nationals not standing a candidate to help the other win the electorate. However, Mr Zempilas stressed he would be guided by what was best for both parties in achieving victory in a regional seat such as Kalgoorlie, noting the history of Liberals and Nationals candidates winning seats through the preferences of their rivals. Mr Zempilas made the comments to the Kalgoorlie Miner during his first visit to Kalgoorlie-Boulder on Monday since being elected as Opposition Leader after the Cook Labor Government’s State election victory. WA Labor’s Ali Kent was re-elected with a razor-thin margin of 467 votes in the seat of Kalgoorlie over the Liberals’ Rowena Olsen and WA Nationals’ Tony Herron. Former Liberal member for Kalgoorlie Kyran O’Donnell also picked up a significant vote as an independent. Mr O’Donnell had previously won a tight three-cornered race in 2017 against Labor’s Darren Forster and Nationals’ Tony Crook before being defeated by Ms Kent in 2021. In a wide-ranging discussion with the Kalgoorlie Miner on Monday, Mr Zempilas said the keys to winning the seat of Kalgoorlie in 2029 involved not only working hard at election time but also in the four years leading up to the poll. “It’s one of the reasons why I’m here now, it’s why you’ll see me again in April, I’ll be back a number of times next year, I’ll be involved in many discussions with businesses, community (representatives) and others in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder area,” he said. Mr Zempilas said the WA Liberals would not win government without winning a seat such as Kalgoorlie. “So it is our absolute intention to be formidable in our candidacy for the seat of Kalgoorlie,” he said. Mr Zempilas said it was “reasonable to say that a prominent independent” — a reference to Mr O’Donnell — “probably had a bearing on the result” in Kalgoorlie in March but the configuration of candidates might be different in 2029. “It’s possible that only a Nationals or Liberals candidate could run in any regional seat — but that doesn’t mean that’s the only way,” he said. “It’s also quite possible that we will continue to run both a Nationals and a Liberals candidate in all of our regional seats. “Again, for me, and for our teams, it’s about what gives us the best chance — and we know . . . with some certainty from the history of elections in WA, often it is quite reasonable to expect that a Nationals candidate has got up because of Liberal preferences or vice-versa. “And so we certainly won’t limit our ability to do that if the locals and the organisations believe that will give us the best chance.” Mr Zempilas described the WA Liberals’ relationship with the WA Nationals as a “close working” and “high-functioning alliance”. “I’ve said consistently that we will take whatever model or whatever relationship with the Nationals forward in 2029 that gives us the best chance — and if that means a formal coalition, and it may well, then we are absolutely going to put that on the table,” he said. He said holding Labor to account had been the “number one job of the first 10 months of our time in Parliament”. When asked how much more detailed policy the WA Liberals needed to create to present itself as a credible alternative government, Mr Zempilas said “a lot more than we have detailed thus far”. “But I want to be clear that’s by design,” he said. “It is not our intention to start releasing policies until around the 12-month mark out from the next election. “There may be the odd announcement prior to that but there certainly won’t be significant announcements (before the 12-month mark) . . . that’s our timetable. “I do understand people saying ‘Well, what will you do’, and I get it, and that is something that people will continue to say, I accept that, but it is the role of government to govern and at the right time, at the time of our choosing, it will be our job to present our very clear vision for the State of Western Australia and the policies that will underpin that vision. “Our policy roll-out will be bold, (it) will be very clear what we stand for and where the differences are to this current Labor Government.” Mr Zempilas also told the Kalgoorlie Miner about the doubts he had about the State Government’s commitment to regional WA. “I am not being unkind when I say I think there is a genuine question mark over Labor’s commitment to the regions,” he said. Mr Zempilas said this was shown by the elimination of regionally based seats in WA Parliament’s Upper House. He said this change had had “the wrong effect” for regional representation and the WA Liberals would contemplate bringing back the old system. Mr Zempilas said the Liberals continued to apportion responsibilities for its representatives “under the old model because, unlike Labor, we want to be able to be representing and representative of all of the regional centres of our State”. “It’s a big State, it’s a vast area . . . with that, you really do have to prioritise representing the regions, make a concerted effort to be in those regions and that’s why even though our numbers are thinner than Labor’s, that’s why we’ve adopted the approach that we have,” he said. Mr Zempilas said the State Government’s appointment of ministers for regional areas was “lip service”. “When we’ve asked questions in Parliament of the regional ministers it is clear that, by and large, they are not across the detail and not across the briefs,” he said. “I note also that all of them have other ministerial portfolios and I can just tell you from my sense where I sit in the Parliament, it is clear that that regional representation that’s been added to their workload is not their main priority. “I’d say what they’re doing is creating the pretence that they are active and genuinely concerned about the regions when in actual fact all of those regional ministers live in Perth.”