Long-serving Nationals MP Vince Catania has handed his resignation to the speaker of Western Australia’s Legislative Assembly, officially triggering the process of holding a by-election.
Key points:
- Vince Catania announced his retirement two months ago
- But the by-election process couldn’t start until he handed in his resignation
- It creates an awkward situation for the Liberal-National alliance
It is expected the poll to replace him in the seat of North West Central will be held around the middle of next month, possibly on September 17.
A date will be formally decided when the WA parliament sits on Tuesday for the first time after its winter recess.
Both the Liberal and National parties have announced their candidates, but it is unclear whether Labor will contest the seat.
The long-serving Nationals MP announced his retirement nearly two months ago, saying he did not “have anything left in the tank.”
However, he did not officially resign at the time, as most politicians do, in a move described as “most unusual” by political commentator Peter Kennedy.
When asked about the delay, a spokesperson for the WA Nationals said it had always been Mr Catania’s plan to retire in early August.
“[He] continues to be committed to his role as the member for North West Central until this time,” the spokesperson said.
North West Central is WA’s geographically largest electorate, taking in towns such as Carnarvon, Coral Bay and Exmouth.
Mr Catania has held the seat since 2008, after initially being elected to the upper house in 2005.
The Nationals were the first to announce their candidate for the by-election, selecting local publican Merome Beard.
A post on Ms Beard’s Facebook page shows she will officially launch her campaign on Friday, in an event that will also be used to farewell Mr Catania.
Other posts show Mr Catania will join Ms Beard, who used to work in his office, at a number of “mobile office” meetings across the region.
A qualified urban and regional planner, Will Baston will stand as the Liberal Party’s candidate.
He has also worked as a consultant on “conservation and economic development outcomes for outback and regional Western Australia”, according to the Liberal Party.
It is understood the Greens will also field a candidate, to be announced on Wednesday.
Awkward contest for opposition alliance
The by-election creates an awkward situation for the Liberal-National Alliance, with both sides having to compete for votes.
However, Deputy Liberal Leader Libby Mettam said yesterday that her party’s interest was “not in competing and fighting against the National Party.”
“We will be leading and campaigning in support of Will Baston, our Liberal Party candidate, and we hope that either Will Baston or the Nationals candidate will be elected,” she said.
“Our position as the party representing all of Western Australia is to be giving people the option to vote for the Liberal Party and vote in a strong candidate, which is Will Baston.”
An even more awkward result would be if the Liberal Party won the seat, leaving both it and the Nationals with an equal number of members in the Legislative Assembly.
It is a situation understood to be unprecedented, with no clear way of deciding who becomes the Opposition Leader, leaving the parties to negotiate an outcome.
If that eventuated, the Liberals would likely have the upper hand, given they have more members in both houses of parliament than the Nationals.
However, that is an unlikely result, given the Liberal Party received just 7.9 per cent of first preference votes at the last election, compared to the Nationals’ 39.7 per cent.
The Nationals currently hold the seat on a slim margin of 1.7 per cent, or 259 votes.
Labor yet to show its hand
Labor is yet to announce whether they will field a candidate.
There is a sense though that there would be little purpose in the party doing so, given they already hold 53 of the 59 seats in the lower house.
Last month, Mr Kennedy said Labor could “stand back and let the Liberal Party and the National Party fight it out, and it won’t make any difference to the overall numbers in the Legislative Assembly”.
That is in addition to the fact by-elections are rarely won by incumbent parties, although the effect of Premier Mark McGowan’s popularity could work against that trend.
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