WA election: Former leaders, law and order, and offensive tweets on campaign hustings
Updated
You could be forgiven for thinking you were back in the 1990s on the campaign trail in WA, with former prime minister John Howard and former premier Geoff Gallop both making appearances on Thursday.
Labor talked tough on law and order, the Liberals promised solar subsidies, and tweets from the past landed a One Nation candidate in hot water.
Here's how it unfolded:
Former leaders campaign
Former premier Dr Gallop, who led the Labor government from 2001 to 2006, was back in Perth and on the campaign trail with Mark McGowan.
Dr Gallop was the Labor leader in 2001, when three One Nation candidates were elected, and had to navigate a Parliament where the party held substantial influence for several years.
He was quick to hose down suggestions One Nation had become more moderate, as has been claimed by Premier Colin Barnett in defending the Liberals' preference deal with the party.
"All that has changed is the desperation of the Liberals," Dr Gallop said.
Former prime minister Mr Howard also jetted into town to boost the Liberal's campaigning efforts.
He joined Southern River MP Peter Abetz and Environment Minister Albert Jacob at a shopping centre in Mr Abetz's electorate.
The former prime minister said he supported the WA Liberal Party's preference deal with One Nation.
"You've got to make decisions if you lead a major party about preference allocation and the only really extremist party in Australian politics now are the Greens," he said.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull's office confirmed that the Prime Minister would arrive in Perth on Sunday afternoon, but would not make it to the Liberal Party's campaign launch.
Tougher parole laws promised
Labor was campaigning on law and order again, promising tougher parole laws for serial killers and mass murderers.
Under the proposal, an attorney-general would be able to instruct the Prisoners Review Board not to consider parole in cases of serial killing.
Currently, those people are considered for parole every three years after serving a set amount of time of their sentence.
Solar subsidies for business
The Barnett Government hopes a multi-million-dollar subsidy package will result in "thousands" of West Australian businesses installing large-scale solar power systems on rooftops.
Energy Minister Mike Nahan today committed up to $40 million to the initiative, which would provide businesses with a subsidy of up to $40,000 for solar installations.
He believes the new package of subsidies will kickstart the spread of solar on commercial properties across the state.
"Just like in 2010 when we introduced the feed-in tariff [for domestic solar panels], we need to give a stimulus to start the uptake on large-scale commercial [systems]," he said.
"We believe, in a very short period of time, that the need for the subsidy will diminish and the uptake of solar on [a] commercial scale on business rooftops will expand dramatically."
A re-elected Barnett Government would use $20 million for the scheme from the government coffers, and another $20 million from its proposed partial sale of Western Power.
Offensive tweets row
A series of offensive tweets allegedly sent by South Metropolitan One Nation candidate Richard Eldridge in 2013, including derogatory descriptions of Muslims, gay and lesbian people and other minority groups, were detailed in a newspaper today.
While condemning the "abhorrent" tweets, the Premier continued to stand by his party's preference deal swap with One Nation.
He said he was neither interested in nor supported the policies of One Nation and did not believe he would be judged harshly for the preference swap.
The Opposition saw things differently.
"We are putting One Nation last and we are standing on our own two feet," Mr McGowan said.
Topics: elections, political-parties, solar-energy, prisons-and-punishment, wa
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