Mediaboss Marketing

Updated January 31, 2017 21:52:40

Premier Colin Barnett has said he is more relaxed than he has ever been heading into the March election, but his colleagues say they are not taking anything for granted.

The members met in the partyroom for the last time on Tuesday afternoon before the campaign officially starts on Wednesday.

"This election is not going to be an easy election for the Liberal National Government, so we're all working extremely hard, as we should be," the member for Churchlands, Sean L'Estrange, said.

Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis said the State Government was clearly the underdog.

"Every single election the Labor Party tries to position itself as the underdog. There is no debate going into this election. Three terms for any government's a hard ask and the Liberal Party is clearly the underdog going into this election," Mr Francis said.

"I'm never relaxed about any campaign, I'm a member of parliament and every four years I have to reapply to the voters of my electorate for my job."

The member for Mount Lawley, Michael Sutherland, echoed Mr Francis' sentiment.

"Everybody knows that the election is going to be a battle," Mr Sutherland said.

"Anybody that thinks it's not going to be a battle is deluding themselves so we've just got to all do our best and hopefully our standing in the local community will carry some of us over the line," he said.

Health Minister John Day said there was a lot of work still to be done.

"I never feel super confident about being re-elected, I always take it very seriously and work very hard to do so," he said.

But others MPs, including Transport Minister Bill Marmion, were more confident.

"I'm buoyant, I think we've made some pretty good announcements leading up to the election. I think if the public see what we've delivered over the last eight years, I think they'll see we're a solid government," he said.

"We've got a pretty good record to stand on and I think we can build off that and continue building good outcomes for Western Australians."

The member for Balcatta, Chris Hatton, agreed.

"I think we'll get there, I'm feeling pretty confident that we will get there because we have done so much and we've got a lot more to do," Mr Hatton said.

MPs dismissed Labor polling that suggested a swing of almost 20 per cent in the Liberal seat of Joondalup.

"You can't trust what the union polls are about," Local Government Minister Paul Miles said.

Mr Miles was backed by Treasurer Mike Nahan.

"Reachtel is a device that you can use to push your own issues. That was designed for the meeting that we're about ready to have, we know it and we ignore it," Dr Nahan said.

The Treasurer also said Liberal polling told a different story.

After the meeting, Liberal MPs told the ABC the Premier had conceded the Government was not in a winning position at the moment, but told them if they all pulled their weight they could still get there.

WA Liberal state director Andrew Cox is believed to have told MPs the party would do preference deals with Pauline Hanson's One Nation party, but it would likely not be a blanket deal and would be negotiated seat by seat.

Topics: elections, liberals, states-and-territories, perth-6000, wa

First posted January 31, 2017 19:42:11

See original here:
WA election 2017: Liberals claim 'underdog' status heading into March poll - ABC Online