Libby Mettam survives as Liberals sink plan to appoint Basil Zempilas as campaign leader

Libby Mettam has overwhelmingly survived a Liberal partyroom motion against her leadership after an almost two-hour meeting of MPs. In a snap move on Tuesday morning — following polling in The West Australian forecasting a “catastrophic” result for the Liberal Party under Ms Mettam at next year’s State election — she said her position would be discussed at a party room meeting. The West understands the 10 Liberal MPs overwhelmingly agreed to reject a motion, by nine votes to one, to install Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas as the party’s campaign leader. That motion was understood to have been moved by shadow Treasurer Neil Thomson and seconded by Upper House MP Tjorn Sibma. But Mr Sibma did not speak to the motion. In a statement after the meeting, Ms Mettam said the party had to put the “debacle” behind them. “Today at the Party Room meeting of the WA Liberals, I gave my colleagues the opportunity to move a motion of no confidence,” she said “No one did. “We can now put this debacle behind us and move forward as a party to contest the March 2025 State election.” Ms Mettam called on Liberals to focus on the upcoming election. “Those within the Liberal Party that may be reserving their energies and effort for a new leader must instead apply their full effort to our success now,” she said “Having dealt with this issue, we owe it to Western Australians to focus on them, not ourselves as I have been attempting to do.” More to come