Moore MP Ian Goodenough to snub both major parties in preferences for must win northern Perth seat

Moore MP Ian Goodenough has ruled out preferencing major parties at the upcoming election, saying he will leave his how-to-vote cards open as an independent. The decision comes after a preferences stand-off by the independent MP who was ousted as the Liberal candidate for the seat in a preselection civil war with former Stirling MP Vince Connelly. “What we’ve decided to do is just to have an open ticket and just say please give me a first preference and allocate the other preferences depending on your own preference,” he said. Mr Connelly had taken Liberal candidacy for the seat in the wake of the Australian Electoral Commission abolishing Stirling in a redistribution of WA’s electorates. “There’s obviously some concerns with internally with the candidate. The advice has been to leave an open ticket,” Mr Goodenough said. He estimated it could be a challenge for the Coalition to maintain the must-win seat with a raft of new candidate vying for the northern Perth seat. Teals have rolled out a psychologist Nathan Barton as their Climate 200-backed candidate, while Labor is again running local father Tom French. “It’ll be quite a challenge because there’s not one independent — but several independents running,” he said. “It’s going to be quite interesting because the teal candidate will obviously split some of the primary vote away from the more sort of left leaning Liberals. “It’s going to be close. All elections are tight but I’m just keeping my head down and getting around as much as I can for the next 60-odd days. “I’m just getting around to all the shopping centres with my ute and trailer just being visible, and people are coming up to talk to me.” While the four-term MP won’t prefer either Labor or Liberals, he has previously stated he would support a “conservative Government” in the event of re-election in a hung Parliament. He ruled out a return to the Liberal party in any form saying the party had a long way to go to clean up its “unhealthy dynamic”. “Not at this stage. There would have to be a bit of a change in the dynamic,” he said. “The old Liberal Party... that I sort of grew up in is very different now. The old gentleman of Richard Court, George Cash, Norman Moore — politics has changed.” Mr Goodenough also said whie there were limitations in translating the results of the March 8 WA Election to the federal poll, the Liberal party needed to take note of any impact disunity had on the State branch. He said the leadership jostle between Libby Mettam and Basil Zempilas, and Nationals refusal to give up the Opposition leader title left voters confused around an alternative to Labor. “It was quite significant because if people probably thought, if she can win and if Basil replaces her, then you’re voting for one and getting the other,” he said. “People couldn’t say with confidence that who was going to be the Premier. It wasn’t clear that (Ms Mettam) was going to be the premier.”

Moore MP Ian Goodenough to snub both major parties in preferences for must win northern Perth seat

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