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The most awkward leadership drain comes to mind this morning. It’s time for Western Australia’s liberal MPs to vote to determine who is the best person to bring the party back from oblivion.
The Liberal Chamber will meet at 11 a.m. to decide between two candidates: incumbent David Honey and his deputy Libby Metham.
Western Australian liberals are no strangers to leadership contests. If Mr. Metham wins, she would become her sixth leader of the party in less than six years.
But what makes this contest so unusual is that just two Liberal MPs will go against each other in the State House of Representatives.
And that’s not the only leadership decision this morning. Nationals lawmakers are also meeting to choose a replacement for Mia Davis.
So who are running for the two leadership positions?
David Honey
Let’s start with the liberal race of two horses.
Cottesloe Member of Parliament, Dr Honey is a relative newcomer to parliament, having won the seat in 2018 after former Prime Minister Colin Burnett retired from politics.
But Dr. Honey was active on the Washington state political scene long before he entered Congress, serving as the Liberal Party’s president since the 1990s when Richard Court was prime minister.
His election at the time was dominated by his victory in a pre-election campaign against lawyer Emma Roberts about the lack of women in Liberal positions and whether the party was serious about addressing it. It was somewhat controversial as it rekindled the debate on
However, Dr. Honey said he was the best person for the job and moved to the shadow cabinet after entering parliament.
His role in unsuccessfully trying to sell the party’s green energy policy ahead of the 2021 election drew criticism from some colleagues who detested the policy and believed it contributed to the party’s dismal election results. rice field.
But after becoming one of only two Liberal MPs to survive the massacre, he was elected leader unopposed.
He has tried to hold the government accountable, especially for the cost of living pressure.
During his tenure, however, leadership speculation was ever-present, with many of his fellow liberals seeing him as a placeholder, a matter of when, not if, he would be replaced. increase.
Critics are also frustrated with the lack of cut-through with voters and what they see.
But Dr Honey has been digging since being informed of the leadership challenge on Friday, claiming he is the perfect person for the job and could hand over the mandate to Labor in 2025.
Prior to joining Congress, the 64-year-old was Alcoa’s manager and chairman of the Kwinana Industries Council.
Libby Metham
Publicly, at least, Mr. Metam has been protected on his grounds for challenging his incumbency.
Rep. of Southwestern voters in Vasse have said little publicly about where they think Dr. Honey went wrong or what they would do differently.
“I believe I have the connection, determination and drive to lead the Liberal Party to the 2025 election. Unless I believe I can make a big difference, I will not raise my hand,” she said. , revealed the outline of the plan … about the role if she succeeds.
And Ms. Metam and her supporters are confident she will – they believe they have at least the five votes needed to win in the nine-person party room.
The 45-year-old former ABC journalist was first elected to Congress in 2014, succeeding former Treasurer and opposition leader Troy Buswell.
She spent the last few years of the Barnett administration on the back bench, but rose to prominence after her election loss in 2017.
Mettam was the face of the Liberal Party’s attack on Metronet during the government’s final term, becoming deputy leader after being replaced at the last minute by Zak Kirkup.
She and Mr. Kirkup were dubbed the “new generation” of liberals, but the election ended in a disaster that nearly wiped out the party.
Rep. Metam was one of only two members of Congress, but chose not to challenge the leadership and remained as deputy until Dr. Honey took office.
Since then, as a health spokeswoman for the opposition, she has led criticism of the government over its struggles in the hospital system, and has also won praise for the commission’s role in investigating sexual assault and the treatment of women in the resource industry.
Several of her colleagues have long been convinced that she will succeed Dr. Honey at some point, and within hours of Mia Davis stepping down from leadership of the Nationals, Ms. caused
how about the nationals?
It’s not exactly the same level of drama given that this was a vote caused by a resignation and not a spill, but the National Party Room will also meet this morning to elect a new leader.
Ms. Davis shocked not only her colleagues but the public when she declared that there was no fuel left in her tank and that she wanted to leave.
This has been a slow-developing race as her fellow citizens have been caught off-guard—no one has declared their intentions to run in the days leading up to the conference.
However, the number of candidates is very large and there are few non-Labor MPs in the state legislature.
Shane Love has been Moore’s MP since 2013 and has been the Nationals’ deputy leader since 2020.
That might make him the most obvious substitute, but he hasn’t declared his hand.
Raw member Peter Randle is another possibility.
A farmer from Katanning, he has been a Member of Parliament since 2017.
Melome Beard, the only National Party member in the House of Commons, was just elected to Congress in September, making her a long shot.
Anything else I should know?
A number of big decisions will be made as well, especially about the future of the opposition alliance between the Liberal Party and the National Party, whoever wins.
Some MPs believe Davis’ resignation as Opposition leader means it’s the right time for the National Party to hand over its mantle to the Liberal Party.
That is because the Kuomintang cannot win enough seats to become the main party in the government. Therefore, only a liberal can become prime minister from the conservative side of the government.
But the Nationals, perhaps through a formal federation, must believe such an arrangement would be in their interest.
That is, if that hypothetical scenario is carried out, it will likely require a considerable horse trade, both in this term and in the future, revolving around promises given by the Liberal Party as to what position the National Party will take. It will be
This means that the winner of today’s poll results has some serious issues to address within the first few days of taking office.
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