WA election: Joe Francis loses seat, says Liberals 'in denial' as Mike Nahan firms for leadership
Updated
The rout of the Barnett Government has continued with Joe Francis becoming the sixth Barnett Government minister to lose his seat, leaving outgoing Treasurer Mike Nahan now likely to assume the Liberal leadership.
Mr Francis conceded defeat in the seat of Jandakot just after 3:30pm, three days after Saturday's catastrophic loss to Labor.
The loss of Mr Francis eliminates him as a possible opposition leader and deepens the leadership problems facing the party, raising serious questions about the strength of the Liberals in opposition.
With a continuing silence from the surviving leadership team of Colin Barnett and deputy Liza Harvey, and other Cabinet members such as Mr Nahan and Sean L'Estrange, it is yet to be confirmed who will lead the Liberal Party back from a defeat that has decimated its ranks and wiped out some of its most capable members.
Mr Francis joins outgoing ministers Albert Jacob (environment), John Day (health), Paul Miles (local government), Mark Lewis (agriculture) and WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls (housing) as cabinet casualties of the landslide Labor win.
The ABC understands Ms Harvey is reluctant to take over the leadership and would like to retain her position as deputy.
Early on Tuesday afternoon Churchlands MP Sean L'Estrange also expressed an interest in the deputy leadership position, but ruled himself out of contention for the top job.
It has left Mr Nahan in pole position to take over the leadership, with Mrs Harvey remaining deputy.
Party 'in denial'
Standing on the steps of Parliament earlier on Tuesday, it was Mr Francis who faced the media and laid bare the dysfunction inside the Liberal campaign which led to the crushing loss.
He urged Liberal party members to stop their denials and start rebuilding trust with the public by admitting critical mistakes both in the campaign and in government.
"I'm holding a press conference and I'm talking to you today because there's a void right now from the Liberal Party where people are either denial about the magnitude of the victory of the Labor Party or in denial about what went wrong, or in denial about what the future may hold," he said.
He said the Liberal Party needed to be straight with the people it has let down.
"For the last eight and a half years, we gave a lot of people a lot of reasons to vote against us," he said.
Mr Francis said the campaign was compromised by deep dysfunction within the Premier's office, with communications completely breaking down with some cabinet ministers.
Premier 'wrapped in cotton wool'
He refused to identify individuals, but said coordination from the Premier's office was a real problem.
"Look obviously there was dysfunction between the Premier's office and the ministry and the back bench," he said.
"Colin was wrapped in cotton wool by people who just said yes to him.
"I'm not going to point fingers. I would say that the Premier seemed to be cocooned somewhat by people in his office from the reality of what was happening in the electorate."
He said the One Nation preference deal deprived the party of oxygen as it tried to push its campaign messages but that effort was also often compromised by mixed messages from the Premier himself.
"I'm a big fan of his but having a crack at the media when I'm trying to have a crack at the Labor party probably doesn't help the cause," he said.
Mr Francis said the Liberal Party breached trust with the public on a wide range of issues from its inadequate response to the impact of Uber on the taxi industry to the forced resumption of land in Forrestfield for the airport rail link.
Earlier he told radio 6PR the party should have dumped Mr Barnett as leader last year in an effort to minimise the scale of its electoral defeat but lacked the courage to do so.
Topics: elections, liberals, states-and-territories, wa
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