Basil Zempilas is not the only local government mayor pondering a move to the political big time with the Liberal Party.
Flush from winning second terms, the high-profile and popularly-elected mayors of South Perth and Nedlands have been eyeing their chances of running for Labor-held seats that are likely to return to Liberal hands on March 8 next year.
But what is emerging from those races reveals that the Liberal Party’s internal problems, the exposure of which has done it so much damage in recent years, are far from fixed.
In South Perth, where pre-selection nominations close next week, forces associated with the remnants of the faction known as The Clan still have a stranglehold on the branches, effectively squeezing out declared candidate, mayor Greg Milner.
In Nedlands, it appears that mayor Fiona Argyle has been blocked for a run as a Liberal before she even started.
The very least that prospective Liberal candidates should expect is a fair and open pre-selection contest. The only way to choose candidates on merit is for every applicant to be treated equally and to be appraised and adjudicated on their presentations by an open-minded panel.
But that doesn’t appear to be happening in some of the seats the Liberals have prospects of winning back next year.
As a result of its 2021 election rout, the WA Liberals undertook a review process culminating in the adoption of a new pre-selection plebiscite system, touted as much-needed reform.
“I think the people of WA have given us a very, very clear message: reform or pay the price,” senator Michaelia Cash told reporters at the party’s 2022 State conference.
“This is a show of unity following the recent elections that we are taking the first step towards reform, and we are taking those steps in the full knowledge the people of WA deserve the best possible candidates,” then-party president Richard Wilson said.
But former parliamentary leader Mike Nahan sounded a warning after failing to get the conference to amend obvious flaws in the new system: “Our major problem is the vast majority of our branches are defunct, non-existent, controlled by a small cadre of people.”
Nahan said it was “ridiculous” the party had more branches than it did 30 years ago, despite a plunge in membership.
He was right. You don’t have to be a genius to realise that factional control is easier if branches have small memberships.
The new system can be held hostage if the branch system determining who can pre-select continues to be rorted and if the delegate appointment process through State Council and the party’s divisions is controlled by one faction.
In the seat of South Perth, the Clan potentially controls around 60 of a likely 80 pre-selectors.
There are five Liberal branches — the eponymous one, Como-Collier, Manning, Mill Point and Kensington. Only the first two are deemed to be “constitutional” and able to take part directly in the pre-selection plebiscite. Both are controlled by people associated with notorious Clan powerbroker, Nick Goiran.
A branch’s president discloses its factional control. South Perth’s is Goiran henchman, lawyer Tim Houweling, chair of the party’s powerful Constitutional and Drafting and Appeals and Disciplinary committees. Como-Collier’s is Daryl Pranata, outed in the notorious leaked WhatsApp message scandal as a key Clan operative.
Under the new plebiscite rules, given the Clan’s success in securing State Council and divisional positions, the faction gets about 24 pre-selection delegates.
Around another 14 come directly from the two constitutional Goiran branches based on their membership numbers and there are possibly about 22 delegates drawn from electorate residents, likely to be predominantly Clan adherents from the unconstitutional branches. That latter figure is rubbery without precedents.
Party sources say that more than 100 delegates could be eligible for the South Perth plebiscite, but the real figure is likely to be closer to 80. The Goiran forces will get their way.
Three potential candidates connected to the Clan have been named as potentially running: Hayley Cormann, wife of the Clan’s former federal enforcer and ex-Federal finance minister, Mathias Cormann; Houweling; and his business partner, South Perth’s deputy mayor, Bronwyn Waugh.
It seems counter-intuitive that the Clan would run three candidates — and it is. Houweling told me on Thursday: “I don’t expect to stand.”
So watch this space because a contest between Cormann and Waugh would split the Clan numbers. However, either contesting solo against Milner gives him no chance.
In a direct consequence of the South Perth unrest, some members of the three unconstitutional branches have quit and joined the National Party’s first metropolitan branch in Applecross.
Breakaway members anticipate that Jonathan Shack, brother of former federal Liberal MP for Tangney Peter Shack, will seek the Nationals’ endorsement to stand in South Perth, splitting the conservative vote.
A band of previously blue-ribbon Liberal seats will return to the party at the election on current polling numbers. These are the seats into which any sensible political organisation would put potential Cabinet ministers.
Providing protected entry into these prized seats to party hacks and factional drones will not ensure the best result.
Many outstanding candidates may not have been Liberal Party members until quite recently or have deep historic links to a seat. That should be no limitation on their rights to a fair contest if they have talent.
The WhatsApp exposure of The Clan’s activities gave many people reason to stay away, but the repercussions of the 2021 election disaster have motivated others to be part of a rejuvenation effort.
Any signs that high-quality candidates are being rebuffed because insider deals have determined pre-selection outcomes will have a chilling effect on attracting the best people.
The Labor Party has no prospect of holding Nedlands. The Liberals have slated nominations there and in the highly prospective seats of Hillarys, Carine, Scarborough and Churchlands for the final tranche on February 28.
The Nedlands electorate knows that Labor’s Katrina Stratton has recently toyed with the idea of moving to the Upper House to avoid defeat. She also supports increased urban density, a kiss of death in that seat.
But Stratton’s demise doesn’t necessarily mean Nedlands naturally returns to the Liberals.
Back in December, Argyle’s application to join the Liberal Party was leaked to the media. A report in The West Australian noted in its first paragraph that she “could be a candidate at the next State election, despite challenging a Liberal MP as an independent last time out”.
Not hard to join the unfriendly dots there.
“Seven months before she was elected mayor in 2021, she challenged Liberal MP and former Barnett government minister Bill Marmion as an independent, garnering 11 per cent of the vote,” the report said.
“Her run against a Liberal MP remains a sore point for some in the party, but others have pointed out that she directed preferences to the Liberals over Labor.”
Media speculation since then has centred on three Liberals being in the running for Nedlands: Perth city councillor and long-standing party member Brent Fleeton; the niece of former WA premier Richard Court, Libby Court; and Argyle
Argyle refused to comment to this column on her recent dealings with the Liberal Party. But it seems quite a few people know about them. Multiple sources say she was called to a meeting with three senior male Nedlands Liberals after she applied to join the party, which quickly went downhill.
On one account, Argyle was allegedly told that if she intended to stand for pre-selection, she would not win. She was asked to use her profile to support another candidate.
On another account, the mayor was told she could not remain a party member if she intended to run as an independent.
As with Milner, I don’t know if either is the best candidate. But everyone deserves a fair go at a pre-selection hearing.
Frankly, someone looking a bit like independent Curtin MP Kate Chaney could do well as a prospective member for Nedlands. And Argyle is definitely closer to a Teal than the Liberal bloke she tried to unseat in 2021.
I asked Chaney if she would endorse a candidate for Nedlands and got an expectedly equivocal answer: “No matter who calls on this issue or where they’re from, we explain that if they are not satisfied with their current representation, it is up to them to establish a local group to identify the issues that matter the most in their community, establish their platform and build local support.
“We have also been happy to explain the benefits of community independents as a true expression of representative democracy, as opposed to the party machines.
“In regard to ‘so-called teals’ becoming ‘a formalised political party in WA’, as far as I know I am the only person in WA labelled a teal by the media, and I am not forming a political party in WA.”
Which might come as some relief to the Liberals.