GOVERNMENT MEDIA MONITORING UNIT
DATE: May 9 th , 2005
TIME: 7.18AM
STATION: 720 ABC PERTH BREAKFAST (CAMERON)
SUBJECT: KENNEDY - POLITICAL ROUND-UP
This transcript is produced for information purposes only. Although all care is taken, no warranty as to its accuracy or completeness is given. It is your responsibility to ensure by independent verification that all information is correct before placing any reliance on it.
CAMERON
…(Chat about football, not transcribed)… Now, getting onto politics, Stateline…. Oh, some murky goings-on, some irregularities.
KENNEDY
A very good story by Layla Tucak of Stateline, on Friday night, about the Liberal Party, reopening some old wounds with some of their…some of the selection of candidates, particularly in the North Metropolitan region, and it was all linked with the one-vote/one- value, the decision of Alan Cadby, after he’d been dropped from the Liberal team, to drop out of the party, as it were, and his vote with…
CAMERON
..and deliver it to the Government?
KENNEDY
..on one-vote/one-value. Well, I mean, when I say, drop out of the party, there was a …it was a sort of a …it was … it’s a two-way street there, but he …his key role there, and the issue was the process, the endorsement process. There are lots of questions over the endorsement process. And on Friday night that issue was revisited and some very alarming comments made by some Liberal Party members about the whole process, and that’s caused a lot of unease.
There were suggestions, for instance, that Peter Collier, who was the beneficiary of the fact that Alan Cadby dropped off the ticket and he went on the ticket, and has been elected to the Upper House, there’s suggestions within the party that he might stand down because there’s a cloud over his head. There’s also a suggestion in the party that the next person on the Liberal Party ticket is a barrister, and that, therefore, David Klein’s* his name, and the party won’t have a barrister in the Upper House after the - 2 – chamber changeover at the end of this month, when Peter Foss retires, then …that perhaps it would be a good idea to sort of move him up the ticket and have him take the place while the whole issue is resolved.
So, look, and… and the state council is going to reconsider the matter as well, so it’s a very unhappy ship…
CAMERON
…very, very messy…
KENNEDY
…and they need to resolve it because, I mean, unless it is resolved the Labor Party, as you’d expect, will keep reminding them about those matters, so some problems there, and all reopened on Friday night by Stateline.
CAMERON
And Friday night, of course, the electoral reform legislation went through?
KENNEDY\
Big night, big night, and it’s not often that the Upper House sits on a Friday night, but the legislation did go through, essentially major shake-up, it’s got to go to the Lower House next week to be effectively endorsed, and some of the amendments tidied up, but, for all intents and purposes, it has been carried, and certainly will lead to those historic changes, a huge shake-up in seats, you know, those six seats coming out of the country regions, and eight extra in the metropolitan area.
Now I know the Electoral Reform Society doesn’t like it being referred that way, but that effectively is what the impact is, of these changes, and WA the last state to, sort of, adopt this sort of approach. So I know the Labor Party has been chasing it for a long time, and the Liberal Party decided this time to oppose it lock, stock and barrel, although we also know that many in the Liberal Party thought …
CAMERON
..uneasy with that.
KENNEDY
…we should have negotiated to try and get a better deal.
CAMERON
Now the local government elections, we’ve got the results being published today, and a few pollies trying to get their toe back in the water?
- 3 –
KENNEDY
Some succeeded, some failed. For instance, David Smith, former Labor minister, succeeded in being elected the mayor of Bunbury, replaced John Castrilli, who resigned to become the Liberal Member for Bunbury, so…
CAMERON
…musical chairs…
KENNEDY
..exactly, they must be dancing the jig down there, in the South-West. In addition, Jan Macfarlane, the former Labor member for the federal seat of Stirling, got elected to the Stirling council…
CAMERON
…there you go…
KENNEDY
..so a bit of a consolation prize, and it’s interesting how people just love to contest these elected positions, and Megan Anwyl, the former Labor member for the state seat of Kalgoorlie, failed in a bid to get onto the Vincent Town Council. It was a highly contested election, in Vincent, hotly contested. So she missed out, but …and, of course, you would have seen big changes in the Perth City Council too. So it was a very, very vigorous round of local government elections…
CAMERON
..and good to see people are interested.
KENNEDY
Well, certainly. I mean, exactly right, Eoin, exactly right.
CAMERON
And some unresolved issues coming out of that election too.
KENNEDY
Well, you would have seen, for instance, the shake-up in Cottesloe, the high-rise, or the alleged high-rise, versus the alleged low-rise…
CAMERON
…polarise the electorate…
- 4 –
KENNEDY
..and the support there for the low-rise candidate, it seems, and also in the Town of Cambridge, where the matter of Perry Lakes, the redevelopment has to be settled, and the suggestion that the people who are successful in the Town of Cambridge are hostile to the plans for Perry Lakes. So Alannah MacTiernan’s got to do some sort of deft footwork..
CAMERON
…I’d say so…
KENNEDY
..to…perhaps…
CAMERON
…speaking of dancing.…
KENNEDY
…perhaps not so deft, to sort all that out.
CAMERON
…some stamping, perhaps?
KENNEDY
…but I think she’s indicated she’s very keen to sort it out.
CAMERON
And you’re telling me, Peter, that the Dems have reached for the jumper leads?
KENNEDY
Well they have. The Democrats, after their very disappointing state and federal election results, they had a …a group working on their future directions, and just where the party’s going to go, because if it’s going to go somewhere they’ve got to sort it out, and one of the conclusions they came was…came to was the party was formed to keep the bastards honest, and there was a view that the party had become the bastards. So they needed to do some… and the party had a major credibility problem.
But listen to this, I mean, if this was your political party then you would be very concerned. They found out, for instance, a sizeable majority in this survey, 22%, agreed that the Democrats should merge with the Greens; 13% of former Democrats voted Green this time, on the grounds that their policies were clearer and they took a stronger stand. So the party does really have a problem. 40% of members didn’t - 5 – participate in the last election campaign, the federal campaign, they felt the party was too top heavy, and it says, of those who didn’t know if they’d get…still be a member, 46% would only stay if …stay on if the party’s problems at a number of levels got sorted out, with a further 19% waiting to see what happens,
So the party… I mean, that’s the sort of working out what the party’s problems are, the next chain is to sort of come up with the answers, otherwise the party will just fade away…
CAMERON
…be totally irrelevant.
KENNEDY
Yeah.
CAMERON
What’s coming up, Peter?
KENNEDY
Well, I guess the main issue this week is the federal Budget, of course, tomorrow. All eyes on Peter Costello and Canberra, and just what it means for Western Australia and what it doesn’t mean for Western Australia. So that’s the big story, I guess, this week, but in addition state Cabinet goes to the regions for the first time this year, going to Mandurah, they’ll be meeting there today and doing a round of activities in the Mandurah, Dawesville and Murray electorates. But while I mention that there’s some concern in the Liberal Party as well that Matt Birney hasn’t brought the Libera… hasn’t called the Liberal Party shadow cabinet together at all, since he was elected leader, and there was a view that perhaps she should.
Now you might have noticed in The West this morning that his popularity is rising, so that’s raised a few eyebrows as to why his popularity would be rising, but that’s what the poll said, although some Labor people said to me, alright, Peter, you’ve got to look at the Roy Morgan poll as well, which showed that he …as far as the voting intentions in Western Australia are concerned, two-party preferred, it’s Labor 60%, Coalition 40%, but The West poll is the other way around. So it’s the old story about opinion polls, but Matt Birney would be very buoyed by that Westpoll this morning, to be away for a week and then be in controversy for a week, and it does wonders for your popularity.
CAMERON
Certainly, unusual. Peter, thanks for that and we’ll talk to you on Friday.
Ends… dlr