Lyons voters stick with the status quo

Premier Peter Gutwein and Opposition Leader Rebecca White in debate at the Casino. Photo supplied

Sharon Webb

A STATE election called a year early has left the Lyons electorate representation almost the same as it was before.

As counting proceeded (at the time of writing) only one of the five seats was in doubt, being fought over by Labor candidates, incumbent Jen Butler and Janet Lambert.

The 82,911 Lyons voters chose Labor leader Rebecca White and Liberals Guy Barnett, Mark Shelton and John Tucker to retain their seats. Although first-time Green candidate Liz Johnstone performed creditably with around 2000 primary votes, she will not sit in the House of Assembly.

Nor will Liberal Meander Valley councillors Susie Bower and Stephanie Cameron. Longterm Liberal Party member Cllr Cameron has so far outpolled Cllr Bower on primary votes, 2077 to 1542, but their overall performance including preferences is yet to be seen.

While it was a comfortable first election performance for both, Cllr Bower may be dissatisfied because it is an indication of the electorate’s potential support for her as a federal candidate.

At the time the state election was called, she confirmed she had indicated interest in pre-selection for a federal seat.

‘The State election is not really a practise run for a federal election and I’m not there to make up the numbers,’ she pointed out.

Commenting on the premise that the Liberals had chosen her and Cllr Cameron because adding two females to a male team was a good look, she said, ‘Any government would want to put competent females forward’.

For Lyons voters some interest is in the small details of primary vote trends, compared with the 2018 election.

Rebecca White topped the poll again with more than 10,000 votes, a slight swing against her. Her vote, well above the 7427 vote quota for a seat, will help Jen Butler or Janet Lambert into Parliament.

Second in the poll, Guy Barnett had around a seven per cent swing to him.

Active across the electorate, with regular photos in The Examiner, his support for a posthumous Victoria Cross for Teddy Sheean may have made him a popular choice. 

Mark Shelton appears to have had a small swing in his favour, as does East Coast candidate John Tucker, who may benefit from preferences from Guy Barnett’s high vote.