Colin Barnett says he is confident he has the support to continue as premier if there is a leadership spill this week, following the resignation of ministers Dean Nalder and Tony Simpson over the weekend.
Colin Barnett says he is confident he has the support to continue as premier if there is a leadership spill this week, following the resignation of ministers Dean Nalder and Tony Simpson over the weekend.
Mr Nalder, who resigned as transport and agriculture minister on Saturday night, said he would challenge Mr Barnett for the leadership if a spill motion was put forward on Tuesday.
Mr Barnett told ABC 720 this morning he had no plans to call a spill motion, but other members of parliament might.
“If that happens then so be it. I’m confident there is strong support (for me) and most members of parliament don’t like this self indulgent activity,” Mr Barnett said.
“I’ve always said I’ll do what’s right by the government, but the view of my colleagues as I judge it is that they very much support me to continue on to be the premier, to take us to the election, to hopefully win that election, and guide the state through what’s been a difficult economic and financial period, and to complete some of the work we’ve got under way and broaden the economy.”
Mr Barnett said he felt personally let down by Mr Nalder’s resignation.
“l think he has missed a great opportunity to make a big contribution to this state,” he said.
“It’s quite extraordinary to have two ministers resign over a weekend so there will certainly be a discussion about that, and I will be calling on members of parliament to get behind me as leader.”
Responding to criticism that he, as premier, didn’t know what was going on around him, Mr Barnett said it was possible that the resignations of Mr Nalder and Mr Simpson over the weekend were designed as an ambush.
“I certainly was surprised that Tony didn’t speak to me before he resigned – it’s a very unusual thing to resign on a Saturday,” he told ABC 720.
“Tony’s letter of resignation to me simply said that he wanted to concentrate on his electorate and he thanked me for the opportunity to be a minister; he did not in any stage mention leadership issues to me at all.
“I’m disappointed they both resigned. Both of them had been to the media before they had spoken to me, and that’s disappointing.
“I have a view that if you’re going to resign for whatever reason it might be, you actually front up to the premier of the day you do it formally and properly and to his face.”
Mr Barnett also addressed Mr Nalder’s accusations in media reports suggesting he had abandoned the Fremantle tunnel component of the contentious Perth Freight Link project on his own accord, with a $23 million bill owed to the preferred proponent.
“A tunnel has not been approved by cabinet. It is an option and may well be the best option for what follows Roe 8,” Mr Barnett said.
Mr Barnett also had to defend allegations that Liberal MP Helen Morton had been bullied by members of his staff.
“I’ve always got on well with Helen and I’m surprised at those comments,” he said.
“I don’t know what she has referred to. She did a good job as minister and she’s been a good member of parliament – I’ve always had a good personal relationship with her.”
Ms Morton later lashed out at the premier on ABC 720, accusing Mr Barnett’s inner sanctum of an “out of control, undermining, threatening, bullying and intimidating” culture that sidelines cabinet members, including Mr Nalder.
Ms Morton chose not to name one staffer who she said was a particular problem, but will raise the matter at a party room meeting tomorrow.
"A particular member of staff who I felt so strongly about was having such a demoralising and destructive and divisive impact across my staff that I banned that member of staff from having any further contact with me, my office or my staff," she said.
Ms Morton said the staffer made attempts to engage with people to rearrange policy ideas that had already been confirmed by cabinet and made it hard for media advisers to know who they had to answer to, constantly summoning them to the premier's office.
She said she didn't think banning the staffer from her office cost her the cabinet role but contributed to it.
But the problem was broader than just one individual.
"That machine that surrounds the premier is out of control," Ms Morton said.
Mr Simpson resigned early Saturday as local government minister and told reporters that the state government had lost its way. Mr Nalder quit that night, but told reporters that he and Mr Simpson had not done so as part of an orchestrated campaign against Mr Barnett.
Heading into their cabinet meeting this morning, ministers including Attorney-General Michael Mischin, Health Minister John Day and Treasurer Mike Nahan flanked Deputy Premier Liza Harvey as she criticised Mr Nalder and backed Mr Barnett.
Ms Harvey, who has long been touted as a likely replacement for Mr Barnett, said there were only a small number of disaffected and disgruntled agitators.
"We are mortified at the conduct of Mr Nalder and Mr Simpson, and we all 100 per cent unequivocally support the premier," Ms Harvey told reporters.
"Should there be a call for a leadership spill in the party room tomorrow, we will not be supporting that.
"And I can assure each and every one of you and every elector out there in Western Australia that from that party room, Colin Barnett will emerge as the leader of the Liberal Party, the premier and absolutely the right person to take us through to the election in March 2017.
"None of us have ever wavered in our support for Colin Barnett."
Ms Harvey said they were also mortified by the actions of Liberal backbencher Ian Britza, who also said on the weekend he no longer supported Mr Barnett.
She said the Morley MLA, Mr Nalder and Mr Simpson had been "intrinsically linked" to prominent Perth businessmen who recently commissioned a ReachTel poll showing the Liberals would lose power if they tried to secure a third term with Mr Barnett at the helm.
"That entire strategy was designed to undermine the premier, to undermine his leadership, to try and place Dean Nalder into that role," Ms Harvey said.
"He's disillusioned, he has no support."
She said he had been planning the move for months but did not have the numbers.
Ms Harvey also ruled out a tilt at the top job.
Mr Nalder's place at the centre of leadership speculation was heightened last month with the release of private polling by a group of business people led by Azure Capital founder John Poynton. The polling, which showed the Liberals in poor light across several marginal electorates, was shown privately to Mr Nalder before it was made public.
