Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten says the Canning byelection is an opportunity for voters to tell Tony Abbott they have had enough of his “quite extreme” government.
“The results are in and they’re not pretty,” he told reporters in the West Australian electorate, flanked by the party’s candidate Matt Keogh and Perth MP Alannah MacTiernan.
“This is an opportunity in this electorate to put down some markers to Mr Abbott and his Liberals, to say enough is enough.”
Shorten said Labor would make jobs the centre of its campaign in the byelection.
“WA has been doing it tough in very recent times, after almost four decades of growth and success,” he said. “We all know that the mining boom has eased off and this has hit a lot of people in this community hard – fly-in fly-out workers and also people who rely upon the industry which was created through the mining boom.”
He said it would be hard for Labor to achieve the type of swing needed to wrest the seat from the Liberals (almost 12%), but it was “an opportunity to talk about the future, to talk about jobs”.
Keogh, who recently stepped down as president of the Law Society of WA, pushed his local credentials and family connections.
“My mum is a teacher, my dad works in a hospital,” he said. “One of my brothers is a teacher. We understand and feel the cuts that are made and will be made by Tony Abbott’s government to health and education, and that’s one of the things that has really inspired me to stick my hand up for my local community.”
The Liberal party on Friday confirmed soldier Andrew Hastie as its candidate for Canning.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, told reporters he was “confident, but not complacent or cocky” about the Liberals’ chances in the byelection.
He said the previous incumbent, Don Randall, whose death triggered the byelection, had attracted a strong personal vote.
“So I’m not saying for a moment that we’re going to hold Don’s margin, but nevertheless we’ve got a terrific candidate. Andrew Hastie is an outstanding individual,” Abbott said.
He said the Liberal party had “a great story to tell”, highlighting its record on jobs.
“It’s a very good record and I think with a good record and a good candidate you can be reasonably confident of a good result.”
New boundaries released by the Australian Electoral Commission on Friday, after a draft redistribution, show part of Canning will be lost to a new WA seat at the next federal election.
The new seat, named Burt after one of the state’s most prominent legal families, will be the 16th WA seat in the lower house and will also include parts of the current seats of Hasluck, Swan and Tangney.
The ABC election commentator Antony Green said the draft boundaries would make Burt a marginal Liberal seat.
The Canning byelection will be fought on the old boundaries.
