WA Coalition throws deck chairs as it sinks

From The Australian:

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett is facing his first leadership challenge after eight years in power after former transport minister Dean Nalder said today he would nominate if a spill motion is put forward at a Liberal Party meeting on Tuesday.

It is expected that one of Mr Nalder’s colleagues — some of whom have been agitating for him to challenge Mr Barnett for several months — will put forward a spill motion in an attempt to oust the long-serving Premier just six months before the next election.

Some in the party believe Mr Nalder — a first-term MP — could struggle to win more than 10 votes in the 46-member Liberal Caucus. Those close to Mr Nalder, however, believe the former ANZ Bank and Australia Post executive already has about 20 MPs behind him.

…Mr Nalder brushed off an opinion poll in a Perth newspaper yesterday which showed only 5.5 per cent of voters preferred him as Liberal leader, compared to Mr Barnett on 45 per cent.

The most recent Newspoll survey, published in The Australian in May, showed Labor ahead of the Liberal-National government by 54 per cent to 46 per cent in two-party preferred terms.

Today Boom and Bust Barnett fights on at the AFR:

He said the result was “basically a 50-50 bet”.

“For the first time this year, a poll that was positive for the Liberal government,” he said.

…”I am extremely disappointed in Tony Simpson and Dean Nalder that they did not have the courage or the integrity to tell me of their decision face-to-face or even on the telephone,” he said.

Well, der. If there was ever a government that deserves the boot it this one – the most inept fiscal manager since the Victorian Kirner Government – running enormous deficits during a boom then pulling the reigns during the bust.

It really doesn’t matter who they put in charge now.