WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ELECTION 2017
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ELECTION 2017
Legislative Council: |
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 The Liberal ticket has been shaken up the retirement of the first placed candidate in 2013, and the preselection defeat of the second. The retiree, Barry House, has been in parliament since 1987, and served as President of the Legislative Council since after the 2008 election. The demotee, Nigel Hallett, is now running for Shooters Fishers and Farmers.The new number one candidate is Steve Thomas, who held the lower house seat of Capel from 2005 until its abolition at the 2008 election at which he failed in a bid to unseat Labor's Mick Murray in Collie-Preston. Thomas was a veterinary surgeon before entering politics, and has lately worked for Nola Marino, the federal member for Forrest. Second on the ticket is Wade De Campo, the shire president of Manjimup and operator of a transport business. De Campo made headlines during the campaign when he called ABC Radio to put sharp questions to Mark McGowan while purporting to be John from Collie, and was rumbled on air by the show's producers. In third position is Robyn McSweeney, who was first elected in 2001 and progressed up the ticket from third to second in 2005 and first in 2008 and 2013. However, McSweeney was dropped from the ministry after the 2013 election, having served in the first term as Community Services and Women's Interests Minister, and had been demoted to a loseable position on the party ticket.  For the fourth election in a row, the Labor ticket will be headed by Sally Talbot and Adele Farina. The ticket was led by Farina in 2005, and Talbot thereafter.Sally Talbot is a member of the Left, and has served in the shadow portfolios of environment after the 2008 election, and disability services and mental health since 2013. Adele Farina was once associated with the now defunct Centre faction and is now an independent. Farina told the Corruption and Crime Commission in December 2006 that her career was “severely at risk” because she refused to do the bidding of Brian Burke. She has never reached the ministry, but has held parliamentary secretary rank since 2013 in the Attorney-General portfolio. Labor's non-incumbent third candidate is John Mondy, a Margaret River property consultant.  The lead Nationals candidate, Colin Holt, is a former agricultural scientist who returned the Nationals to the South West region when he was elected in 2008, after successive failures for the party in 2001 and 2005.The party's second candidate is Louise Kingston, who is described as a “former Warren-Blackwood Alliance of Councils executive officer and small business owner”.  Nigel Hallett is contesting the election for Shooters Fishers and Farmers after losing preselection for the Liberals, having been elected for them from third position in 2005 and 2013, and second in 2008. Hallett held minor portfolios in opposition but went to the back bench after the 2008 election victory, and failed to win a position at a preselection ballot held last February. He defected to Shooters Fishers and Farmers the following June, and while he spoke of “a widespread belief in the bush that farmers and regional Western Australia have been forgotten”, he also allowed he had had “a fantastic run with the Liberal Party”.One Nation's candidate is Colin Tincknell, the state party's leader and highest profile figure in the campaign. Tincknell has worked as a corporate social responsibility manager in the mining industry, with a particular focus on indigenous engagement, and appears notably moderate in his political outlook. The Greens' candidate is Diane Evers, a former Albany councillor and the manager of a community organisation undertaking environmental works. Other lead candidates are Jeff Casson (Micro Business Party), Linda Rose (Family First), Greg Spaanderman (Australian Christians), Daithi Gleeson (Flux the System), Stephen Phelan (Julie Matheson for WA), Alicia Sutton (Animal Justice), Hayley Green (Fluoride Free), Nathan Dyson (Liberal Democrats) and Brett Tucker (Daylight Saving Party). Return to upper house guide entry page |
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