Voter fury over heritage laws smashes Cook as Labor left reeling in post-McGowan era, or so went the subheading on an article in the Western Australian today.
This overly dramatic conclusion came from the Utting Research phone poll of a meagre 1,000 people in late July which set the Liberals in a winning 54 per cent position in a two-party preferred race. Labor’s primary vote is speculated to be sitting somewhere around 32 per cent, having fallen from 52 per cent.
Undoubtedly Labor’s popularity has slipped, but it’s a bit early to decorate the town blue.
The state famous for its ‘we love McGowan’ years where the Premier could do no wrong, even when he was keeping dying family members from their loved ones or creating globally trending Covid propaganda, is unlikely to change its spots overnight. Hard-left ideology is deeply embedded in the state’s electorates.
However, the Big State Daddy is gone and it seems as though the people of Western Australia are at least starting to look around and acknowledge that something has gone horribly wrong.
Front and centre of the post-McGowan shock are the Aboriginal Heritage Laws which are not only terrifying farmers, who cannot work out if they still own the land they spent generations paying for and looking after, but also green groups who found themselves being blackmailed to the tune of $2.5 million.
That’s all been hastily walked back with a lot of hand waving from the Labor government. ‘It’s just a mix-up!’ they pleaded in front of the cameras, to a disbelieving audience.
Except it’s not a mix-up. The Aboriginal Heritage Laws make a mockery of land ownership and the public have a sneaking suspicion that Labor has allowed the Indigenous bureaucracy to overstep the public’s patience.
The result is a polling backlash.
It’s not as if the Western Australian Liberals have done anything to earn the sudden surge in support. According to a two-party preferred scenario, they have the numbers to snatch the leadership if the election was held tomorrow. It’s quite a turnaround considering these are the Liberals famous for giving up on an election before it started and for a near-extinction-level election result.
Have the Liberals toughened up?
No. But the public are sensing that the Labor Party pose a clear and present risk to their homes and land so even a weak opposition appears momentarily attractive.
Not a lot is known about the leadership of Libby Mettam, other than she intends to capitalise on McGowan’s departure.
Having a former ABC journalist at the helm of the Liberal Party doesn’t scream ‘blue ribbon’, but maybe there really is some ideological diversity within the ranks of the public broadcaster in WA. She has decided that the biggest fight for Western Australia is … the GST. Which seems odd given the rising threat of China’s military influence in the West and the Net Zero attacks on the mining industry that pays all of the government’s bills. There can be no health revolution if the mines close.
‘I certainly do not share the style of Mark McGowan, but what I would say – and what I think the public have an expectation of – is a leader who will fight for them, and the biggest fight that we now have on our hands is in relation to the GST.’
Mettam needs to check her notes, because the recent poll surge in favour of the Liberals has jack-all to do with GST and everything to do with the Aboriginal Heritage Laws. If the new leader is going to pick a winning fight, it’ll be that one.
As for China, her prospective government is going to ‘leave national security to the Federal Parliament’ because why worry about an expansionist communist empire embedding itself in Australia? It’s no surprise that Western Australians don’t feel particularly ‘protected’ by their state Labor government. ‘Exposed’ would be a better word.
Mettam is serious about up-scaling the trade relationship with China. As she says, ‘I share an interest in ensuring that we can maintain that trading relationship and even improve on outcomes for our farmers, our cray fisherman, and our wind industry as well.’ Yet none of that is going to come to fruition if Mettam isn’t prepared to gut the parasitic activist bureaucracy.
Does she have the courage to stand up against the activists?
There might be some hope on that horizon.
Mettam tweeted following the tree-planting scandal, saying:
‘ICYMI this is why we have committed to scrap Labor’s Aboriginal Cultural Heritage laws if we win the 2025 election. The Cook Govt thinks these laws are fair – but while we support protecting cultural heritage, these laws are confusing and go too far.’
Although the truth might be a little less pitchfork-y.
‘We are committed to fixing Labor’s mess by making sensible changes to the overly prescripted regulations. Fixing the laws won’t be easy, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done,’ Mettam wrote in a recent op-ed.
‘Fixing the laws’ is not the same thing as ‘scrapping’ them, is it? One involves a marker pen, the other uses a shredder – and you can bet which option farmers and landholders would prefer the Liberal leader to employ.
‘We have always supported the intent of these proposed laws which promised to prevent a repeat of Jukaan Gorge. They also promised to cut red tape, modernise and streamline the original cultural heritage laws which have been in place since the 1970s. But the Act was bulldozed through Parliament as urgent legislation and any debate about how they would work at a practical level was guillotined. We were assured the proper processes, education, support, and training would be in place.’
It sounds like the Liberals were taken for mugs.
The responses online were predictable. ‘Yet you support the “yes” campaign…’ Which is correct. Having been played as fools once, members of Western Australian Liberal Party leadership are defying Federal leader Peter Dutton and supporting the Voice to Parliament, even though it presents a greater risk to the future prosperity and unity of Australia than the hated Heritage Laws.
After all, what could be more backward and divisive than enshrining actual racial privilege inside the Constitution? It’s impossible for the Western Australian Liberals to use the Liberal brand while advocating for racially-charged Marxism.
In her announcement, Mettam said that she would be voting in favour of the Voice, saying: ‘I support recognition of our First Nations people in the Constitution.’ The Nationals weren’t much better, with then-leader Mia Davies adding, ‘We as a party in Western Australia have a position that is different to the Federal National Party.’
Both parties have forgotten that racial groups are not supposed to have ‘a seat at the table’ – individuals do, because our system is not one of backward race politics.
Besides, ‘recognition’ is not what the Voice to Parliament is about, which the wider Australian public has worked out even if the Liberals haven’t. Recognition would involve a short preamble, not the establishment of a monstrous bureaucracy. One has to seriously question the judgment of the state opposition if this is the path they’ve chosen.
The Voice is sinking Albanese, and it’ll sink the Liberals on the West coast if they don’t wise up soon. It is not enough to stay quiet, they will have to come out and support Dutton.
There’s not much you can say about the Western Australian Liberals. If they manage to claw back a majority position from Labor it will be because Labor self-destructed without the personality cult of its dictatorial leader. It won’t be a Liberal government based on merit, it’ll be a protest vote.
Flat White is written and edited by Alexandra Marshall.
