Western Australia Premier Roger Cook says he will be heartbroken if his party loses Saturday’s by-election in the seat of Secret Harbour, as he took aim at the “bots and trolls from the east coast” that he believes have helped build the momentum behind One Nation.
One Nation candidate Luke Herdegen is considered a strong chance to win Secret Harbour just over a year since Labor retained the seat with a healthy margin of 11.5 per cent. The by election was triggered by the retirement of veteran minister Paul Papalia.
A win by One Nation would deliver the party its first ever lower house seat in WA, and would mark the first time Labor has lost a seat to One Nation since the Pauline Hanson-led party started surging in popularity.
Appearing alongside Labor candidate Georgia Tree at a polling booth on Saturday morning, Mr Cook said it would “break my heart” if Labor lost the seat.
“But we’re in the hands of the people of Secret Harbour today,” he said.
“I’m just today immensely proud of the woman that’s standing behind me. I’m immensely proud of the campaign that we’ve run and just every WA Labor volunteer coming out to work to make sure that we can get Georgia Tree as the member for Secret Harbour. She’d be a great advocate for this community.”
Mr Cook said Labor had been up against the entire One Nation movement from around the country, and flagged his concern at the nature of some of the debate about the by-election online.
“We’ve all seen some of the incredibly toxic and poisonous social media activity coming from bots and trolls both on the East Coast and overseas, but we’ve been on the doorsteps, we’ve been talking to people, talking about the issues which matter to them,” he said.
Today’s by-election could also have significant implications for prominent federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, whose electorate of Canning overlaps with Secret Harbour.
Mr Hastie, who has clashed publicly with One Nation, has criticised his own party over its campaign in Secret Harbour and Mr Cook said a win by One Nation this weekend would only happen with assistance from Liberal preferences.
“If One Nation gets elected today, I think on most analysis it would be on the back of Liberal Party preferences. I think that’s what’s made Andrew Hastie so incredibly angry with (WA Liberal leader) Basil Zempilas. I think he feels let down that the Liberal Party state leader is essentially working to undermine Andrew Hastie, by pushing a One Nation candidate,” Mr Cook said.
Mr Herdegen, meanwhile, told reporters he firmly believed One Nation would win and said the support for the Secret Harbour campaign had the party weighing up its prospects in other nearby seats – including Kwinana, the seat held by Mr Cook.
“I certainly think that if we win this seat, we’ll put the surrounding areas on notice as well. Rockingham, Baldivis, Kwinana and hopefully it sets a standard for the rest of the state and the whole country,” he said.
Mr Herdegen said he was mindful that he and his One Nation colleagues had been up against the full weight of a Labor apparatus that has dominated politics in WA for the past decade.
“I’m confident, but you know, we are coming up against a big machine here. We are definitely the little guy, so we’ll see where it lands.”
Read related topics:One Nation
Paul GarveySenior Reporter