Premier Roger Cook declares PM must decide on election date swap by February

Wednesday at 07:31 AM

Premier Roger Cook has declared the Prime Minister has until February to set or forget about March 8 as a potential date for the Federal Election.

Anthony Albanese’s refusal to rule out March 8 — the date West Australians are due to head to the polls — has fuelled speculation after Mr Cook revealed he sought legal advice on shifting the fixed March 8 election date over a looming federal poll.

On Wednesday, Mr Cook maintained that he hadn’t been told whether a clash was likely.

“Quite frankly, only the Prime Minister can make that decision,” Mr Cook said on Wednesday.

He described a conversation about a potential clash with Mr Albanese as “very theoretical”, insisting that “ultimately, the decision is up to him”.

“I know that in Western Australia, we’ll have an election on the eighth of March unless we don’t . . . it’s just out of our hands.”

Mr Cook said a decision would need to be made by the first week of February for WA to delay, noting the Federal Government had to provide four weeks notice by going to the Governor-General.

“That will be the opportunity for us to understand if there’s going to be any impact . . . it’s just a matter of maths,” he added.

Mr Albanese, who must call an election before the middle of May, has been under increasing pressure to set the date after Mr Cook revealed he sought legal advice at The West Australian’s Leadership Matters forum this week.

Camera IconFormer WA Premier Colin Barnett Credit: Michael Wilson/The West Australian

Former WA Premier Colin Barnett, who fixed the election date in 2009 on the second Saturday in March every four years, said provisions to shift the date were only written in to cover the event of writs being issued for a Federal campaign.

“That’s only when a Federal election is called, not just to give Mr Albanese political options as to when he calls for the election,” the former Liberal premier said.

“If that’s happening, you can rightly accuse Mr Albanese and Mr Cook of putting Labor’s political interest ahead of the formal election process in Western Australia.

“That’s entirely improper. It just works against a democracy. It means that the Labor Party manipulates election day.”

Mr Barnett said the Prime Minister would get a strong negative reaction from the WA public if he called the election over the top of the State campaign, comparing it to the decision by his predecessor Alan Carpenter to call the 2008 election six months early.

The WA Electoral Commission has confirmed March 8 would become an “excluded day” if it was set as the Federal election date.

Section 394 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act states “no election, referendum or vote” of a State or Territory can be held on the same day as a Federal election without the authority of the Governor-General.

The State poll can only be delayed one week until March 15 unless the Opposition Leader agrees to a further one-week delay under “extraordinary circumstances”.

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