Joe Spagnolo: Fractured conservatives will pay the price next election

As it stands — barring a scandal of Watergate proportions — the WA Liberal and National parties will suffer another heavy defeat at the next State election in March. And quite frankly, both parties deserve everything they get. The so-called alliance between the two conservative parties is pretty well non-existent. At best, it is dysfunctional. There is no “Team Opposition” in WA politics. It’s every man — or woman — for themselves, so to speak. And this week was a clear example of that. On Wednesday, on a day WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam had hoped to hold court and shine a light on CFMEU donations to its WA Labor mates, National Party leader Shane Love was trying to spruik his shopping hours policy. Once a fierce opponent of more shopping hours in Perth, Love now wants shops in Perth’s CBD to be able to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And he wants councils in the greater Perth metropolitan area to decide shopping hours for their communities — not the State Government. Keep in mind that last December, Mettam tried to make shopping hours an election issue by saying she’d consider taking to the next poll a policy which included allowing shops to open at 9am on Sundays rather than 11am. Love is now cutting Mettam’s grass on shopping hours. The shopping hours U-turn has, of course, a lot to do with the fact the WA Nationals — apart from wanting to win country seats — will at the 2025 State election also try to win city ones. So far, the Nationals are running candidates in Bateman, Kalamunda, and Darling Range, and according to Love, they will also try to run candidates in Cottesloe, Churchlands and South Perth — all seats the Liberals want to win. “We are leaving it for the local people to come forward with their champion,” Love said of Cottesloe and Churchlands. Champion? I thought the Opposition already had a “champion” in Churchlands — Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas. Oh, that’s right. He’s running as a candidate for the Liberals — not the Nationals. And speaking of Zempilas, didn’t he have a great Wednesday this week? While Mettam was out there trying to score some political points by gunning for Roger Cook over CFMEU donations, her candidate in Churchlands was out there promoting his $1 billion-plus plan to “transform Perth into a city to rival Australia’s east coast capitals”. So, not only was Mettam competing with Love for valuable media coverage, she was also competing with her candidate in Churchlands for the ears of potential voters. When Zempilas and others were chosen as Liberal Party candidates, there was all this talk about the candidates being de facto Liberal members of Parliament. There was talk they would become spokespeople for various portfolios. So far, this hasn’t happened. Mettam has become somewhat of a lone voice for the Liberals — trying to do it all herself, and in the process being drowned out by many government voices. Mettam’s future as WA Liberal leader is by no means assured. Liberal sources tell me the party will closely scrutinise her performance — and polling — in coming months to gauge whether, under her leadership, the Liberals can win enough seats to become relevant again. Zempilas is Mettam’s biggest threat in terms of the leadership, so I get that to some degree there would be political rivalry between the two. And I get there would be political rivalry between herself and Love. But somehow, this fractured Opposition — and their respective candidates — need to come together to be a unified force in this election. Because without that happening, the WA Liberals and WA Nationals not only face yet another heavy political defeat in 2025, but possibly another in 2029 — depending on the size of the loss next March. No matter what your political beliefs, the undeniable truth is WA needs a competitive Opposition. To put it bluntly, the conservatives need to get their s... together this election.