WA election: Mike Nahan says he is leader Liberals need after ‘gut wrenching’ defeat – ABC Online

Updated March 19, 2017 17:34:42

Western Australia's next Liberal leader Mike Nahan has rejected suggestions he will be an "interim leader" and will not be around to contest the 2021 state election.

The former treasurer has spoken for the first time since the Barnett Government's dramatic election loss, in which seven ministers lost their seats.

He described the result as "catastrophic" and "gut wrenching" and pointed the finger of blame at former premier Colin Barnett, telling another media organisation he was "tired" and "not up to" the campaign.

Despite being 13 days older than Mr Barnett, Dr Nahan, aged 66, insisted he was not too old to lead the Liberals.

He will be elected unopposed when the party's MPs meet to determine the leadership on Tuesday. Liza Harvey will remain deputy leader.

"Look around the world, I think Donald Trump is over 70, Hillary Clinton was older than I and she was going for the toughest job in the world and I'm very fit and able," Dr Nahan said.

"It requires energy, which I have, experience, which I have, but also a bit of maturity.

"I will be a leader of a team, not a boss, and that's what we need now.

"There is not any issue of policy that I haven't over the last 30 years come across."

Dr Nahan insisted there was no "Kirribilli agreement" to hand over the leadership to Ms Harvey mid-term.

Meanwhile, the former treasurer said there were a number of reasons why the Barnett government was "hammered", including the One Nation preference deal and a perception it was of touch with voter concerns.

"It's our fault. We failed to address the concerns of the public," he said.

Dr Nahan said the proposal to sell 51 per cent of Western Power to raise up to $11 billion was absolutely right and the Liberal Party would most likely stick with the policy.

"It was the right thing to do, it got rejected," he said.

"Labor will rue the day they allowed the unions to fund their campaign in the millions of millions of dollars because that asset will require major investment and will be depreciating in value."

"The sale of Western Power was poorly carried by us ... the public didn't understand it, they didn't understand what Western Power was or the benefits of selling it, or the risk of holding it in terms of depreciating value that's our fault."

Dr Nahan said he had not spoken to Mr Barnett since the election and did not know whether he planned to retire or stay on as a backbencher.

"He's been a contributor to Western Australian politics for many decades but I would expect him to move on from Cottesloe and vacate the seat sooner rather than later," he said.

But he insisted the Liberals would bounce back.

"I've been playing a lot of sports, some seasons you have a bad one but you can come back and the best thing is a bit of offence and we will come back aggressively," he said.

"Labor has a lot of weaknesses."

Topics: elections, state-parliament, wa, perth-6000

First posted March 19, 2017 16:44:03

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WA election: Mike Nahan says he is leader Liberals need after 'gut wrenching' defeat - ABC Online