WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ELECTION 2017

Legislative Council: Agricultural


AGRICULTURAL REGION MAP
RESULTS AT 2013 ELECTION
HISTORICAL VOTE RESULTS
HISTORICAL SEAT RESULTS
CANDIDATES IN BALLOT PAPER ORDER
1 WA Labor
1 DARREN WEST
2 LAURIE GRAHAM
3 CAROL MARTIN
4 LUKE HUNT CLARKSON
2 Family First
1 MURRAY YARRAN
2 LEIGHTON KNOLL
3 Flux The System!
1 LEWIS FREER
2 PETER TURNER
4 Australian Christians
1 TREVOR YOUNG
2 LES HOLTEN
5 Shooters, Fishers and Farmers
1 RICK MAZZA
2 BEVAN STEELE
3 MAL KENTISH
6 THE NATIONALS
1 MARTIN ALDRIDGE
2 COLIN DE GRUSSA
3 LEIGH BALLARD
4 FRED BLOCK
5 STEVE BLYTH
6 DAVID KENNEDY
7 Daylight Saving Party
1 VINCE RADFORD
2 ROBERT TUCKER
8 The Greens (WA)
1 IAN JAMES
2 DYLAN COPELAND
9 Liberal Party
1 JIM CHOWN
2 STEVE MARTIN
3 BRIAN ELLIS
4 CHRIS WILKINS
5 ALAN McFARLAND
10 Independent
1 ALEXANDER JONATHAN REID
2 TIM McMAHON
11 FLUORIDE FREE WA
1 PHILLIP STRAHAN
2 GILLIAN PEARCE
12 Micro Business Party
1 DENNIS JENNINGS
2 PETAR CULUM
13 Independent
1 MURRAY FLEETON
2 PATRICK AKKARI
14 Pauline Hanson's One Nation
1 ROD CADDIES
2 CRAIG McKINLEY
3 EMMA McKINLEY
15 Liberal Democrats
1 CONNOR WHITTLE
2 STUART HATCH
16 Independent
1 BRENT D WILLIAMSON
2 MICHAEL PRINZ
17 Independent
1 N SPADA
2 S DEMIR
18 Independent
1 DAVID GARY REED
2 LEWIS CHRISTIAN BUTTO
19 Julie Matheson for Western Australia
1 PETER SWIFT
2 BRUCE ANDERSON
20 Independent
1 GRAHAM F BARRETT-LENNARD
21 Independent
1 FRANK HOUGH
Agricultural region is a heavily malapportioned gift to the Nationals, having furnished them with three seats after the 2008 election, reducing to two when Shooters and Fishers won a seat in 2013. The situation for the party was complicated in 2013 when the top two members from its ticket in 2013, Max Trenorden (a former party leader) and Philip Gardiner. While the ticket managed only 5.3% of the vote, this subdued the Nationals vote sufficiently that Rick Mazza of Shooters and Fishers was able to overtake the party's third candidate from a base of 3.3% after the distribution of preferences from Family First, Australian Christians and Labor. Before the region switched from five to six seats in 2008, it provided the Nationals with their only seat in the chamber during the lean years of Labor government from 2001 to 2008, having earlier given them two seats in 1989, 1993 and 1996.

The 2008 result did much to establish the conservatives' upper house dominance, with the three Nationals supplemented by two Liberals, leaving only one seat for Labor. With one exception, the five elections held under the five-member regime from 1989 to 2005 returned four seats for the Liberals and Nationals between them, with the Liberals winning three in 2005 and even splits recorded on the other occasions. The exception was the 2001 election, at which the Liberals and Nationals went from two seats each to one seat each. One Nation scored enough of the vote on that occasion to elect their lead candidate, Frank Hough, and deliver a decisive surplus to the Greens through their decision to place both major parties last on preferences. The successful Greens candidate was former Senator Dee Margetts, who stood little hope of re-election without the one-off of One Nation preferences in 2005.



The Liberal ticket is headed by Jim Chown, who was first elected from second position on the party ticket in 2008. He was elevated to first position at the 2013 election, then promoted to parliamentary secretary.

It reportedly took the casting vote on the party's preselection panel to prevent Chown from being demoted in favour of the non-incumbent occupant of the second position on the party's ticket, Steve Martin. Martin is a Wickepin farmer who ran unsuccessfully from third position at the 2013 election.

Martin's position at number two was gained at the expense of Brian Ellis, who was elected from top of the ticket in 2008 and second position in 2013, and is now relegated to number three. Ellis first entered parliament through a casual vacancy in July 2007, and has failed to win promotion off the back bench.



The Nationals entered the 2013 election with a clean slate after the top two candidates elected in 2008, Max Trenorden and Philip Gardiner, quit the party and ran as their own independent ticket, and the third, Mia Davies, filled the lower house vacancy created in Central Wheatbelt by Brendon Grylls' move to Pilbara.

The first of the two elected Nationals was Martin Aldridge, a former chief-of-staff to Tony Crook in his time as federal member for O'Connor MP (he is now running for Kalgoorlie in the lower house), followed by Paul Brown, whose background was in the live export industry. Brown is now contesting the lower house seat of Geraldton, where he faces the difficult challenge of unseating Liberal incumbent Ian Blayney. There were suggestions that this might be because Brown, who had initially been selected to run fourth on the ticket in 2013, might struggle to retain preselection for second spot, with one report identifying WAFarmers president Dale Park as a potential challenger.

The second position has instead gone to Colin de Grussa, a Neridup pastoralist who narrowly failed to unseat Liberal member Graham Jacobs in the lower house seat of Eyre in 2013. Third on the ticket is Narrogin Shire president Leigh Ballard.



Darren West won Labor's only Agricultural seat in 2013 after winning top position on the ticket at the expense of incumbent, Matt Benson-Lidholm, who was unsuccessful as the second candidate. West was formerly a Jennacubbine farmer and chair of the Wheatbelt Development Commission. Labor's initial choice for second candidate was Renee Ellis, a lawyer and Geraldton councillor, but she withdrew at the end of January after council passed a motion calling on her to resign, apparently for missing council meetings, telling rude jokes on Facebook, and allegations of sexual harassment.

Ellis's place has been taken by another Geraldton councillor, Laurie Graham, a former manager of the Geraldton Port Authority (who walked out of the council meeting that considered the motion against Ellis). Number three is Carol Martin, who became the first indigenous woman elected to the parliament as member for Kimberley from 2001 to 2013.



The winner of Shooters and Fishers' first ever seat at the 2013 election (the party has since lengthened its name) was Rick Mazza, a farmer from Rocky Gully.

One Nation's candidate is Rod Caddies, owner of a company that puts on rodeo events. The Greens candidate is Ian James, a farmer from Cunderdin.

The principal beneficiary of the main micro-party preference deal in Agricultural is the Liberal Democrats, whose candidate is Bunbury draughtsman Connor Whittle.

Other lead candidates for small parties are Murray Yarran (Family First), Lewis Freer (Flux the System), Trevor Young (Australian Christians), Vince Radford (Daylight Saving Party), Phillip Strahan (Fluoride Free), David Jennings (Micro Business Party) and Peter Smith (Julie Matheson for WA).


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