Parties know how to win Crook's support

Tony Crook
Tony Crook
It's clear cut how Labour or the coalition can win the support of West Australian Nationals candidate Tony Crook, the party's state president says.

Abandon the mining tax and throw federal funds at the WA government's Royalties for Regions programme.

Mr Crook surprised political pundits on Saturday by overcoming a 12.8 per margin to unseat long-serving Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey in the WA electorate of O'Connor.

But the 50-year-old pastoral consultant has warned coalition number crunchers they cannot rely on his support, adding he is prepared to negotiate with Labour.

The WA Nationals are associated with their federal counterparts in name but they maintain a separate party structure.

Mr Crook, who campaigned on being an independent voice for regional WA, will meet party leaders including the president Colin Holt on Monday to discuss the state of play.

But Mr Holt said the policies the WA Nationals want addressed by the two major parties are no secret.

"We've already said what we want," Mr Holt told AAP on Monday.

"We don't want the mining tax and we want our Royalties for Regions fund matched dollar for dollar and they are pretty clear cut negotiation points for us.

"We've said that for months so it's not new to anyone. That's our starting point."

WA's Royalties for Regions program redirects government spending from major population centres into rural areas funded with 25 per cent of the state's mining and petroleum royalty revenue.

Mr Holt said he did not expect the party or Mr Crook to declare what they're going to do after Monday's meeting because the final seats in the House of Representative were yet to be finalised.

He said it was possible that if Labour backed down on the mineral resources rent tax, the WA Nationals could agree to support them but he stressed it wasn't all about the party making demands.

"There's two sides to this negotiation isn't there?" Mr Holt said.

He confirmed WA Nationals leader Brendan Grylls had spoken to federal leader Warren Truss but believed Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott had not yet contacted Mr Crook.

Since his position became clear on Sunday, when Mr Crook reaffirmed his pledge not to sit in the coalition party room, the former chairman of the Royal Flying Doctors Service has been inundated with phone calls.

Mr Crook has said if Labour was able to afford to throw $A2.6 billion at the Parramatta to Epping railway line, they could afford to direct funds to regional WA.

 

 

Add a Comment