WA election 2025: Liberal MP Steve Thomas hits out at lack of policy and claims Upper House were lazy

An Upper House Liberal MP has lashed out at the party’s lack of a policy platform as the fallout from the third-straight electoral loss continued on Tuesday. With the Liberals hopeful of picking up at least one more seat in Kalamunda to bring the party’s ranks to seven, shadow energy minister Steve Thomas said the party needed to shift right economically. Faced with questions over whether the party’s upper house MPs had made a significant contribution to policy development in the lead up to the election, Mr Thomas hit back. “It was, in my view, one of the most lacklustre and beige campaigns I’ve seen probably ever on both sides of politics,” he told ABC Radio. “The campaign did not capture the imagination of the people, and I think that already made up their mind a long time ago. “Despite having dozens of funding announcements, there was only one policy that was across the industry, across the entire network, that was delivered by the Liberal Party, and that was the energy one. “That was comprehensive, and it covered the things that it needed to cover. It was launched in May last year, mind you, 10 months ago, and it was written by me, an upper house member.” Mr Thomas said to win more votes, the party needed to move to the right on matters around the economy. “We (needed) to have a lot more concerning economic policy, industry development policy, those hard economic things that I think are critically important now,” he said. “We need to be more conservative — and that is more right wing in terms of the real focus, which is economic policy — not social policy, not religious policy, but economic policy. “The people are looking for us to stand up, to actually be conservative and I have my view of what that means — it means belief in sort of individualism. “It’s not the case that we need to be more left wing. We don’t need to be more middle of the road. We just need to be better at those issues that are heartland Liberal.” The former deputy leader also challenged Liberal leader Libby Mettam’s claims on Sunday, the party needed to settle the leadership soon, and stick with that person for four years. “There might be issues to say that you have to sit with one leader for four years, I think it’s problematic,” he said. “It’s obviously an issue that Libby’s changed her mind on, because, if you recall, we didn’t back David Honey in for four years. “If that’s the standard by which we should be operating, we’ve changed that standard dramatically in a couple of years.”