Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett on Tuesday saw off a challenge to his leadership by members of his own party, spurred by criticism he mismanaged a once-in-a-generation commodities boom in the resources-rich state.
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Announcing the result, Liberal Party secretary Brian Ellis said there had been no discussion prior to the partyroom vote.
Ministers arrived en bloc to a cabinet on Monday in a show of support for Mr Barnett where Deputy Premier and police minister Liza Harvey criticised those seeking to remove the Premier.
Mr Nalder, who resigned as a minister along with Tony Simpson on Saturday, accused Mr Barnett of no longer listening or consulting, and claimed he could not get a meeting with the premier for six months.
Mr Barnett said some of those 15 people calling for a vote would have still supported him to lead the party.
It meant there was no formal challenge to Mr Barnett’s eight-year leadership of the party.
That sounds more like wishful thinking than a statement of fact.
Sometime after 10am, 46 Liberal MPs will bunker down in the party room.
“I think they’ve got a lot of opportunity, but I’ll go out of my way to make sure that’s the case”, Mr Barnett told reporters.
Murray Wellington MP Murray Cowper said he was moving the spill motion to clear the air.
Then there’s the problem of the polls.
The day has come for WA’s Premier Colin Barnett.
And when a group of dissatisfied prominent Perth business figures bankrolled a private poll of nearly 11,000 people showing the Government headed for an election loss next March, the leadership speculation and agitation reached a critical mass.
So who are the likely MPs to put their hand up for the leadership of the Liberal party?
The declining state of the WA economy is another major headache. His government had racked up debt as it raced to build infrastructure, including new roads, hospitals and a A$1.5 billion sports stadium, to cater for an expanding population.
A further issue is the Liberals’ fractious relationship with their partners in government, the Nationals.
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“I have no further interest in any challenge”, Mr Nalder said.
