Canning byelection: AFL allegiance rears its head as Labor tackles parking
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Version 0 of 1. Related: Canning byelection: Andrew Hastie refuses to give his views on creationism Now this is true rivalry. Eight days out from the Canning byelection, it has emerged, in a state so obsessed with AFL that no one is sensibly thinking about anything else, that the two leading candidates barrack for opposing teams. Labor candidate Matt Keogh backs West Coast; he’s been a member, he says, since before Fremantle existed as a national side. Andrew Hastie, the Liberal candidate, grew up following rugby, and picked up a Freo scarf when he moved to WA six years ago because, he told Perth talkback radio station 6PR on Friday, he knew former Fremantle player, Scott Thornton. “But I tell you what, Julie Bishop has been twisting my arm to back the Eagles, but I’m going to stay firm,” Hastie said. Football colours may sound trivial but in Western Australia in September, with both home teams in the finals, it is very serious indeed. Keogh, speaking at a press conference with Bill Shorten at Mandurah train station on Friday afternoon, feigned neutrality by saying he would back both teams, because he was “really committed to making sure we have a derby grand final”. Related: Fremantle secure AFL minor premiership as West Coast slip up Before talk turned to football, Keogh and Shorten outlined a promise to spend $10m building 300 extra car parking spots for the station, which Keogh said had usually run out of spaces by 8am. “People need to know that they can get access public transport, and of course having a car park that fills up makes that very difficult,” Keogh said. The funding is contingent on Labor winning the next general election and would be matched by $10m from the state government, providing Labor also won the state election in 2017. It brings the total value of infrastructure promised by Labor in Canning up to $180m – all of which depends on a Labor win nationally. While Labor was announcing its latest round of funding, Hastie, who was visiting a Headspace youth mental health service in Mandurah with the justice minister, Michael Keenan, announced a two-lane upgrade to the Beenyup Brook bridge on the South Western Highway at Byford. Shorten, who pointed out that it was his fourth visit to the electorate since the campaign began four weeks ago, called on the prime minister, Tony Abbott, to match the funding. He also commented on reports that Abbott was planning a cabinet reshuffle to get rid of “dead wood”, saying that the government had become “the Liberal version of the hunger games. It’s minister against minister, leak against leak, MP against MP.” Abbott, who said reports of a reshuffle were wrong, is expected to campaign in Canning on Saturday. It will be his third visit, but Shorten nevertheless claimed he had been “a largely invisible presence” in the campaign, saying “he doesn’t even appear on their how-to-vote cards.” Related: Confessions of a Canning byelection candidate: 'I'm not that cool,' says Matt Keogh How-to-vote cards were later raised by Hastie, who issued an irate press release at the news that the Liberal Democrats, headed by New South Wales senator David Leyonhjelm, would preference Labor in the polls. Or, as Leyonhjelm put it, would “preference against the Abbott government.” The reason given is that Abbott was “the key force behind his party’s attempt to use the court system to strip the Liberal Democrats of our name and drain our bank account in the process”. “Our preferencing in Canning won’t bring down the government, but it will remind the prime minister that there is a constituency that prefers a real liberal party,” Leyonhjelm said. Hastie, in reply, said the deal was “the worst example yet of these type of Canberra games” interfering in the byelection and, in third person, urged people not to mistakenly vote for the other Liberals on polling day. “They must vote for Andrew Hastie, the Liberal Party candidate, at number one to ensure their vote does not go to Labor and result in a poor outcome for the Canning community as a result of these back-room deals,” Hastie said “I’m not another politician. Unlike my Labor opponent I haven’t been groomed and come up through the ranks of the party machine. That’s why these sorts of dodgy dealings are distasteful to me.” Related: Canning byelection: the complete (and completely unofficial) guide to the candidates In another preference deal announced earlier this week, the Australian Christians party announced it would give first preference to Hastie as a “reward” for his opposition to same-sex marriage. (The Liberal party is also encouraging people to preference the Australian Christians on their how-to-vote cards.) Hastie, however, is keen to ensure his opposition to marriage equality is just seen as support for a plebiscite. During a bizarre word association game on 6PR on Friday, Hastie responded to the prompt of “marriage equality” with “popular vote”. Other pairings were: “religion”, “great”; “Islamic State”, “evil”; “family”, “love”; “war”, “sometimes tragic”; “Syria”, “complex”; and “Tony Abbott”, “good bloke”. |