where the opposition was decimated, that he did not expect to win<\/a>.<\/p>\n“The lesson from the 2021 state election is you don’t wave the white flag,” Mr Hastie said.<\/p>\n
“Voters sense weakness and they’ll go to the strong horse if you signal weakness.”<\/p>\n
He said he did not agree with the state Liberals’ political strategy in Secret Harbour and the message should be that they were fighting for every vote.<\/p>\n
“I think we could have signalled to voters that we’re fighting for them, we’re fighting for a better deal for outer-metropolitan Western Australians,” he said.<\/p>\n
PM says Zempilas ‘promoting’ One Nation<\/p>\n
The prime minister was interviewed on 102.5 ABC Perth this morning, when he continued the line of attack used by Premier Roger Cook to accuse the Liberals of giving up.<\/p>\n
![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/e09c3392467273ac472ee3f92febc088.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Anthony Albanese shares a laugh with WA Premier Roger Cook in Perth this morning.\u00a0 (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n
“The Libs are running dead in Secret Harbour. Let’s get real here,” Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n
Mr Zempilas yesterday mocked Mr Albanese for not going to Secret Harbour, with a Where’s Wally-type sign which said: “Where’s Albo?”<\/p>\n
“Who is the state Liberal leader?” the prime minister asked in response.<\/p>\n
“He’s not even trying to run the by-election. He’s out there promoting another political party.<\/p>\n
“I want my party to win. Does Basil? I don’t think so.”<\/p>\n
The prime minister defended his decision not to campaign in Secret Harbour for Labor candidate Georgia Tree, saying he never campaigned in by-elections.<\/p>\n
Zempilas hits back<\/p>\n
Mr Zempilas denied he was running dead in the by-election and took a shot at Mr Hastie.<\/p>\n
“What I know is what we’ve done, and that is not the case,” Mr Zempilas said.<\/p>\n
“It seems odd that a talking point of Labor’s would be re-used by somebody else.<\/p>\n
![\"Basil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/b5faf56369555c898d572a4f38feb4ac.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Basil Zempilas pictured with Liberal candidate Ryan Robertson on Tuesday. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n
“And that’s really what this is because those lines don’t match the reality. We have worked our backsides off down here.”<\/p>\n
Asked if he and Mr Hastie were on the same team, Mr Zempilas said disagreements were part of politics and he was not bothered by it.<\/p>\n
He also denounced as a “ridiculous claim” any suggestion he was running soft in the by-election because he did not want to offend Australia’s richest person and One Nation backer Gina Rinehart.<\/p>\n
“It is simply fanciful to suggest anything like that,” he said.<\/p>\n
One Nation’s WA leader weighs in<\/p>\n
One Nation’s WA leader Rod Caddies said Mr Hastie ‘s comments about Mr Zempilas were proof the former military officer saw the momentum behind Pauline Hanson’s party as a serious threat to his own seat of Canning.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/006e0e083ee96ba9746648f87ec08673.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Rod Caddies says Mr Hastie’s comments are borne out of fear for his own federal seat of Canning.\u00a0 (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n
“We are gaining momentum as you see in Secret Harbour here,” Mr Caddies told media on the campaign trial.<\/p>\n
“I believe we’ve got a decent chance of winning this seat and that gives an indication of where we’re sitting obviously within his [Mr Hastie’s] electorate because it takes in some of that.<\/p>\n
“I would be disappointed if a federal member from One Nation was speaking like that about myself and my campaign.”<\/p>\n
He disagreed with comments about the Liberals “running dead” in the by-election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Labor’s Secret Harbour candidate Georgia Tree disagreed, saying she felt the Liberals were not the key opponent in the poll.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/96f1c1cba1643105524c2732ab6d7be2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Georgia Tree says One Nation is the key opponent in Saturday’s by-election.\u00a0 (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n
“That’s been clear when I’ve been door knocking and speaking to people, they have primarily wanted to vote Labor or One Nation,” she said.<\/p>\n
“At the moment I would rather be fighting the Liberals, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n
“But in general, it’s irrelevant to me who my opponent is. I’m here to fight for Labor and for a Labor government, because I know that having a representative in the room is the best thing for my community.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Australian Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has intensified his criticism of his party’s own WA leader, suggesting Basil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31425,1869,2736,16786,123989,22,21,24993,4806,463,34210,24994,464],"class_list":["post-79859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-abc-radio-perth","tag-albanese","tag-albo","tag-andrew-hastie","tag-anthony-albanese-radio","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-basil-zempilas","tag-liberals","tag-perth-news","tag-secret-harbour-by-election","tag-wa-liberals","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Luke](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c45d6a04789700f09087129593219da4.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n