Premier Roger Cook has dismissed internal Liberal party polling suggesting public support for the $217.5 million public racetrack was at just 5 per cent.
Liberals WA state director Simon Morgan confirmed his party had conducted a recent poll of 650 West Australians across the state, which suggested 77 per cent of people actively opposed the controversial project and that opposition leader Basil Zempilas had overtaken Cook as preferred premier 49 per cent to 47 per cent.
WA Premier Roger Cook and Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas.
Referencing polling conducted by Zempilas’ then campaign manager about the Liberal party leadership late last year, Cook said he’d seen dodgy polling coming from the Liberals before.
“He’s a serial offender when it comes to publishing dodgy polling. Last time he did it, he did it to undermine Libby Mettam and tried to oust her out of the [Liberal] leadership,” he said.
“There was a poll six months and one day ago in Western Australia. It was a poll of the WA people, and it made a decisive decision to back a WA Labor government.”
Outside Parliament Zempilas said the polling confirmed no one wanted the racetrack.
“As with all polling, the only polling that matters is the polling that is around the election March, 10, 2029, but what I’ve read only confirms what I think, everybody in Western Australia knows nobody wants this racetrack. Nobody wants it. Only Rita Saffioti and the Premier seem to be persistent and insistent that it gets built,” he said.
Zempilas said recent opposition on the racetrack by federal Labor MP and Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman proved the project was a dud.
“Even their own federal member for Perth does not want this project. It is very, very clear that they have backed the wrong horse on this one and what they should do is the sensible thing, they should prioritise our hospitals, prioritise our health system, worry about our schools, worry about law and order, the issues that people want them to concern themselves with,” he said.
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