Re-Pete Rundle vows to step up against dominant Labor

Peter Rundle celebrates with close friends and family on election night. Credit: Tom Shanahan

Peter Rundle is leading a push to hold Mark McGowan’s Government to account after resoundingly defeating Labor candidate Brad Willis to retain his seat of Roe at last weekend’s State election.

Mr Rundle was one of very few non-Labor MPs to hold onto his seat in the face of Mark McGowan’s rampant Labor Party — and he did so comfortably.

Being one of a predicted seven Lower House members of a potential coalition between the Liberals and Nationals WA, Mr Rundle said the dominance of Labor across WA was “absolutely concerning” for regional constituents.

“We have got a real concern that Mark McGowan and the Labor Government are going to try and rearrange things to reduce regional representation in the Upper House,” he said.

“One of the first questions we will ask when the new Parliament starts will be directed at the Premier: are you going to impose electoral reform on us?”

“It is our job to keep the Labor Government to account and we will be doing that in question time and any other way we can.”

The seat of Roe was, remarkably, the third seat called on election night after less than 8 per cent of the vote for the region had been counted.

Nationals WA leader Mia Davies said she was pleased Mr Rundle would be staying in Parliament.

“Peter Rundle is a strong local champion for his region, he is deeply connected to the communities he represents and he’s a fierce advocate for rural issues,” Ms Davies said.

“Pete brings to our table a wealth of experience in regional development, with a background as former chair of the Great Southern Development Commission, a small business owner, a farmer and a keen sportsman.”

Nationals Roe MP Peter Rundle vows to fight electoral reform. Credit: Tom Shanahan

Because of the success of Mr Rundle’s campaign and the historically small size of the Opposition, Mr Rundle is likely to slot into several shadow ministry positions.

“Liberal has typically held all the shadow spokesperson positions,” Mr Rundle said.

“We would potentially look at a structure if we were to join forces to have enough portfolios spread out between the two parties.”

Mr Rundle expressed interest in pursuing greater responsibility in Parliament, but said he was “relatively happy” with the current make-up of the Nationals’ leadership team.

“The portfolios of education and sport and recreation which I am spokesman for both of them with the Nationals, as well as water — they do interest me,” he said.

“We have just to wait and see how the rest of the seats play out towards the end of the week and see who has been elected so we can then reassess the situation,

“We will probably have a party room meet up at the end of the week or early next week,

“We will then know where we are going, how many people we have got, whether we are the opposition or not and how many resources we get,

“There is a lot of ifs and buts at the moment.”

Peter Rundle celebrates his re-election with his family in Katanning. Credit: Tom Shanahan

When asked about how he managed to win re-election, Mr Rundle attributed his comfortable victory to community engagement, as well as the support of his family and team.

“My motto is to turn up and try to get to as many community events as I can ... because I think people appreciate it when they can identify that you are their local member of Parliament,” he said.

“I believe our local regional people are a lot more focused on that and they understand who their local member is - provided that their local member turns up.”

Mr Rundle said he was very privileged to be re-elected to serve the seat of Roe for a second time.

He thanked his family, volunteers, support staff and friends for their help in making it possible.

“We certainly needed that support to be able to run a campaign in a seat with 35 polling booths across 3 weeks of pre polling,” he said.

While Mr Rundle’s star is on the rise, the political careers of his opponents — Labor’s Brad Willis and Liberal candidate David Dwyer — have hit a roadblock.

Speaking on the morning of the election, Federal Liberal MP Rick Wilson said poor leadership by the State Liberal Party in Perth put Mr Dwyer in an unwinnable position.

O'connor MP Rick Wilson with Labor candidate Brad Willis and Roe MP Peter Rundle. Credit: Tom Shanahan

“It is a pretty unrewarding task for David Dwyer being a political candidate in a seat where he is not expected to win,” he said.

“I have been on record criticising the energy policy which has a major impact on the town of Collie.

“I think those sort of policies appeal to the Western suburbs and those in the city which has damaged the Liberal brand in regional WA

“I think they will need to revisit those policies if they want to be serious contenders in regional WA,

“It’s going to be a rebuilding phase, reconnect with our base and rebuild our brand structure and restart from the bottom up — that is the only way as we are a grassroots program,” Mr Wilson said.

Mr Willis was one of only seven Labor candidates not expected to win a Lower House seat.

Even though Mr Willis was defeated, he said the campaign was “no doubt a success” after a 12 per cent swing in his favour from 2017.

“Four years ago, our campaign in the region was seen as a joke and now four years later, we lost by just over 10 per cent,” he said.

“This campaign was not anything else but a success ... we clawed back what we clawed back and we wiped out the Liberal party.”

Mr Willis said he planned to get straight back into grassroots projects and prepare to run again in four years.

TWO-PARTY PREFERRED

Peter Rundle Nationals WA, 63.2%

Bradley Willis Labor Party, 36.8%

FIRST PREFERENCE

Peter Rundle Nationals WA, 43.7%

Bradley Willis Labor Party, 27.5%

David Dwyer Liberal Party, 13.9%

Bevan Steele Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, 5%

Nikki Starr The Greens, 3.7%

Cathie Kelly Australian Christians, 2.8%

Graham Bushby One Nation, 1.8%

Gary Jammu WAxit Party, 0.9%

Nita Thakrar No Mandatory Vaccination, 0.7%

Accurate at 12pm on Tuesday 16 March with 51.2 per cent of votes counted.

Accurate at 12pm on Tuesday 16 March with 51.2 per cent of votes counted.

Front page of the Mar 18. 2021 edition of the Great Southern Herald. Supplied