The three major party candidates vying for WA’s newest electorate, one John Howard described as a ‘must win’, have cast their vote.
Labor candidate Trish Cook was flanked by Roger Cook as she cast her vote at Wattle Grove Primary School in Bullwinkel’s west, while Nationals candidate Mia Davies stuck to her country roots, casting her vote in the wheatbelt town of Northam.
Liberal candidate Matt Moran was at Kalamunda Primary School to cast his vote, before heading out to Toodyay to speak with regional voters.
Extending east from the metropolitan suburb of High Wycombe to Perth’s outer eastern suburbs and the Avon Valley, the seat of Bullwinkel has a notional Labor margin of 3 per cent due to the historically strong 2022 election result.
In every other election since 2007, however, it would have been a Liberal win.
Mr Moran’s pitch to electors relies heavily on his local vision and aptitude for defence in a world increasingly fraught with conflict.
He has had appearances from John Howard, Tony Abbott and Sussan Ley to help in on his campaign, and said their presence underscored the importance of the seat.
“We have to win Bullwinkle. It’s a critical seat. It’s a diverse seat, and I’m working really hard with my team to try and ensure I become the first member for Bullwinkle,” he said.
“I’m the only candidate that’s got the connections in the metro area and in the rural area. So, born in Kalamunda, grew up in Boyer.
“I’ve door knocked thousands of houses, that’s how you get a connection to the community and understand what they care about. The number one issue is cost of living and the fact that they feel forgotten by labor.”
The Bill to halt live sheep exports by May 2028 became law in June of last year; it was a hot-button issue across the state, but in Bullwinkel it hit particularly hard.
Pro-ban animal welfare group The Australian Alliance for Animals said the election was shaping up as a referendum on the decision.
To that effect, farmers and the Nationals have been campaigning against the ban across the semi-rural seat.
Most of the land area of Bullwinkel comprises rural holdings east of the Darling Range. However, just 13.6 per cent of voters live in those rural areas, with 80 per cent of enrolment coming from metropolitan suburbs redistributed from Hasluck, Swan, Canning and Burt.
Speaking to Business News while handing out how to vote cards, Ms Davies said that while a majority of voters in the electorate weren’t directly involved in the industry, there was a lot of anger at the ban.
“I think the keep the sheep campaign has done an enormous amount to at least raise the issue in people’s minds, and there are a lot of people that have great empathy, and they’re also grumpy that a government can do something that is so devastating to a part of their state, their community,” Ms Davies said.
“So, it might not be the line in the sand boat for everyone, but they certainly understand it, and they don’t like the thought that it might come to something that they love.
Ms Davies was supported by her mum, who was helping to hand out how to vote cards.
Mia Davies and her mum handing out how to vote cards in the Bullwinkel electorate. Photo: Sam Jones.
“Mum’s been door knocking with me. She’s been a consistent support. And as some of your readers might know, my dad was also heavily involved in the party, and she’s just done an amazing amount of work because she knew that dad would have been out here on the trail with us,” she said.
“And I couldn’t have done it without the support of our volunteers, but particularly my family.”
As you’d expect from a nurse who has worked in some of the most remote and disadvantaged parts of the state, Ms Cook said her primary focus would be improving access to healthcare.
Her promise coincides with Labor’s plan to open six urgent-care clinics in WA, including one in Bullwinkel, in Mundaring.
Flanked by WA Premier Roger Cook, who was quick to remind passing voters “you can never have too many cooks”, and that the pair were not related, Ms Cook said she had received strong feedback from voters.
“I was a nurse when Peter Dutton was health minister, and that was not good for the hospitals which he cut money from,” she said.
“We’ve protected it, and we’re going to strengthen it. It’s one of the best assets we have. I’ve been around the world; I’ve seen other healthcare systems.
“We have a fantastic healthcare system, which still has more work to do, but we’re doing a great job on health so we said we would deliver 50 urgent care clinics around the country, and we’ve delivered 87 of them.”
Urgent-care clinics provide bulk-billed care for urgent but non-life-threatening conditions with no appointment needed.
The WA clinics come as part of a $644 million election pledge by Labor to open 50 clinics across the nation, which it claimed would ensure 80 per cent of Australians lives within a 20-minute drive of an UCC.
The 2025 commitment follows its 2022 pledge to build 50 UCCs nationwide; a promise the government has more than delivered on, with 87 clinics having been opened.
Ms Cook was, however, rather coy on the live sheep export ban her party introduced.
Asked whether she had spoken to sheep farmers at polling booths – many of which had a table of wool – Ms Cook said she supported farmers.
“Look we’re going to look after farmers in this transition period. We want farmers to farm sheep. We want those sheep to be processed in WA. We want those jobs in WA,” she said.
“We love farmers. We got the beef, we got the lobster, we got the wine industries all back, and the barley industry all back. That was the Labor government that supported farmers in getting those industries back, we will support farmers.”
