Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Sterle for his question. Of course I do agree with the Premier of the great state of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, in relation to those comments. What I would say to the Senate is what I have said publicly—unlike at the federal level, in Western Australia the Liberal and National parties operate as independent parties, not as a coalition. My personal preference always is for the Liberal and National parties to act as we do here at the national level, as a strong and united coalition where we direct preferences to each other. But in Western Australia that has not been the circumstance for a very long time. Indeed, since 2008 the Nationals under Brendon Grylls's leadership, and we respected that this was their right as a separate party, have preferenced other parties ahead of Liberal Party candidates. They have done so at every election since 2008 in the upper house, and indeed they are doing that at this election. This is nothing unusual. It has been business as usual for a long time. In fact, the WA Nationals preferenced One Nation ahead of Liberal Party candidates in the upper house back in 2008, and in this election the WA Nationals are preferencing the Greens ahead of Liberal Party candidates, believe it or not.

While my own personal preference and the experience at a national level and in all other parts of Australia is that there is a strong and united coalition, in Western Australia there is an alliance arrangement between independent parties and as such each party makes its own decisions on preference allocations. Our priority, incidentally, is to convince as many Western Australians as possible to support their Liberal Party candidates in the legislative assembly and in the upper house with their primary vote, with their first preference. If they cannot vote for our candidates with their first preference, we encourage them to give us their second, third or fourth preference—as long as it is ahead of the Labor Party and the Greens, because of course they would be disastrous for Western Australia. (Time expired)