Libby Mettam wins the leadership fight but the blame game continues

From the moment she was confronted with “catastrophic” polling on November 8, Libby Mettam and her team had two-and-a-half weeks to wargame how she not only survive but thrive from a challenge to her leadership. When that challenge arrived at 6am on Tuesday — via an opinion poll that predicted an election wipeout in March and pitted her against Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas — she challenged critics to “put up or shut up” in the party room. The swift response drew remarks of “smart” and “wowee” from senior Liberal circles. She was ready to have her mettle tested when it erupted into the public sphere. But nevertheless, insiders have been stunned with how quickly she turned the leadership crisis into a resounding victory. The man she replaced as Liberal leader in January last year, outgoing MP David Honey, has become one of her most vocal supporters. “To be frank, her stamina is amazing,” he said. “Anyone who objectively observes her enormous workload and time commitment would find it hard to understand how she manages it all. “Despite that, she is always enormously positive and enthusiastic and never stops fighting for our party.” He has sat next to her in the Legislative Assembly since 2021, as they were vastly outnumbered and frequently shouted down by Labor. “There are very few people who could tolerate this and bounce back each day,” he said. ‘SHE PLAYED IT WELL’ The Liberals’ Federal candidate for Forrest, former Senator Ben Small, confronted Ms Mettam on November 8 with what he called “catastrophic” polling and suggested she resign. He said he sought to “protect the interests of the Liberal Party” by keeping it private. Ms Mettam saw it as an attempt to intimidate her into resigning. Instead, she hit back at “cowards in the shadows”, referring to the unidentified businessman who commissioned the polling. Her chief of staff Dale Leggett and principal media advisor Brendan Morris armed her with a “polling assessment” that punched holes in the poll’s analysis of “the Basil effect”, calling it a pre-determined outcome that lacked statistics to back it up. They launched her defence before dawn, when the polling was revealed by The West Australian. Ms Mettam put her critics under the pump by bringing forward the Liberal partyroom meeting — usually held after 10am on Tuesdays in State Parliament — by 45 minutes, giving them less time to coordinate. “She played it well,” one MP said. After a two-hour meeting described as “fiery”, Ms Mettam emerged with her leadership intact or stronger. But opinion was divided over how much. “There was no game plan, it all just unravelled,” one MP said. “Everybody has been damaged by this.” Senior Liberal MLC and former Minister Donna Faragher, however, said Ms Mettam deserved “full respect” for how she staved off weeks of speculation. “In her principled way, Libby stared down those who sought to do her and the Liberal Party damage,” she said. “That is testament to her strong leadership.” The Liberal leadership crisis bears similarities to 2016, when Mark McGowan survived a caucus plot to replace him with Stephen Smith. Like Mr Zempilas, Mr Smith was not in Parliament at the time. But whether it is the making of Ms Mettam remains to be seen. A UNITED TEAM? With less than 100 days to go until the March 8 State election, Liberal candidates gathered on Thursday for a team photo, and to spruik a message of unity after a bruising few days. The shoot was also the first time Ms Mettam came face-to-face with Mr Zempilas since Tuesday, where former shadow Treasurer Neil Thomson called for a dual leadership role for the Churchlands candidate. The motion, which was defeated overwhelmingly by MPs, lead to Mr Thomson resigning from the frontbench. Mr Zempilas on Friday maintained he was oblivious to the significance of the motion, saying he didn’t “fully understand what it meant”. The Liberal aspirant admitted he didn’t tell Mr Thomson not to speak up, before he moved the motion to appoint him campaign leader. “The first I knew about it was that morning, maybe half an hour before it happened, or an hour,” Mr Zempilas told 6PR. “He said to me via a text message that I am going to raise this in the party room today. I don’t think I ever responded, I didn’t understand fully what it meant. “It was never put to me that it was a mechanism to cast a vote on the leadership.” Told that was hard to believe, Mr Zempilas held the line. “I have not looked to activate this, I have not looked to bring this on,” Mr Zempilas said. “I didn’t encourage it.” Mr Zempilas has also stressed he did not know about the polling undertaken by his former campaign manager, Ammo Marketing director Cam Sinclair. Mr Sinclair “stepped aside” from the Churchlands campaign team this week after confessing his involvement, sending a grovelling apology to the WA Liberal Party. He has maintained his digital marketing contract with WA Liberal headquarters. Ms Mettam wouldn’t say on Friday whether she believed Mr Zempilas. “Basil has given me his word,” she said. “Basil will be an asset to our team, if he is elected in Churchlands.” RESHUFFLE ON THE CARDS The loss of Mr Thomson from the frontbench will require Ms Mettam to find her third treasury spokesperson in less than a year, after Steve Thomas resigned in February over revelations about his contact with former Labor premier Brian Burke. Insiders are tipping a wider reshuffle that could herald the return of Liberal MP Nick Goiran as shadow attorney-general, 22 months after he was dumped over pre-selection influence wielded by the faction dubbed “The Clan”. His potential comeback was welcomed by at least one Liberal MP on Friday, but labelled an “act of desperation” by another. That move, confirms there will always be political rumblings. But Mettam’s quick counterplay this week also showed she has the steele to stand by her beliefs. For now, Liberal supporters are hoping there’s some solidarity. As another MP declared, the leadership question is answered — for now — for better or worse, saying: “It was all said, and it’s done”.