WA Premier Roger Cook has defended the sidelining of Labor’s candidate for the Secret Harbour byelection at media events over the weekend, arguing he was pressed for time at an event announcing the government’s commitment to the Karnup Train Station.
Georgia Tree, Labor’s pick for the seat of Secret Harbour that was vacated by former minister Paul Papalia when he retired last month, was kept from speaking to journalists during at least two media events held in the electorate over the weekend.
On Saturday, both Attorney-General Tony Buti and Tree were at Bethanie Waters Retirement Village in Port Kennedy to announce new laws coming into effect next month which will provide better protection to the 25,000 West Australians living in retirement villages.
Tree was also at the government’s announcement of funding for the Karnup train station on Sunday alongside Cook and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti.
However, the Labor candidate was kept from speaking to assembled media at both events, with Cook saying on Monday that Tree had already addressed more press conferences than any other candidate in the byelection.
“Georgia’s been to more press conferences than every other candidate combined,” the premier said.
“She has done a great job representing our team. Obviously, we had the announcement on Saturday, which was more of a technical government announcement with regards to retirement villages.
“Yesterday we were time-pressed.
“The deputy premier and I had to get to Lark Hill to talk about a $3 million investment in lighting at Lark Hill. We had kids, we had sports clubs all assembled there.
“But Georgia will continue to be available during the election campaign. In fact, she’ll continue to be more available than all the other candidates.”
When it was suggested that leaving the Karnup announcement could provide an opportunity for Tree to field questions, Cook said the candidate was also committed to the Lark Hill event.
“We were going to a community event where we were announcing a $3 million investment to upgrade the lighting at Lark Hill sports field,” he said.
“We had kids. We had a number of sporting clubs all there to thank Georgia Tree and the WA Labor Party for this commitment.”
When suggested by local media that the Karnup station announcement would be the perfect opportunity to hear from Tree, Cook defended the decision.
“We believe it was an important commitment to the people of that community, and particularly the people in the electorate of Secret Harbor,” he said.
“We were talking about the fact that we’ve always been committed to the Karnup Train Station.
“Obviously, our hand was forced in relation to developing the Lakelands station first, and we honoured the commitment we made to the federal government at the time, who committed to 80 per cent of the funding for Lakelands train station.”
A media release from Tree’s campaign team was sent out to journalists on Sunday containing quotes from the candidate regarding the Karnup station announcement.
“I’ve heard loud and clear from my community that they want to see Metronet Karnup Station built – and that’s what I’ve been fighting for and feeding back to the Premier and Deputy Premier at every opportunity,” Tree said in the statement.
“I know the difference the Mandurah Line made to my life, helping me get to and from university.
“I couldn’t be prouder that young people growing up in Karnup, Golden Bay, Singleton and Secret Harbour will have that same opportunity to get where they need to go – whether it is for work, study or just getting around our city.”
Cook said the timing of the announcement was an opportunity for the government to talk about the project.
“We are now in a position to talk about the subdivisions that will take place to support the patronage at that train station, so it’s a good opportunity for the government to continue to talk about the program, which was already locked in,” he said.
“Now, obviously, we made this announcement about six months earlier than we would have under the planning regime, but we wanted to make sure that the people of that electorate knew that we will be the ones that will deliver the Karnup train station.”
“Now, why should they take our word for it? Because we’ve already laid 72 kilometres of track as part of Metronet. We’ve already provided 23 new train stations. The Karnup Train Station will be the 24th, and construction will start in 2028.”
