“But rather than weaken me it has made me stronger and more determined to succeed – not for myself, but for the people of Western Australia who deserve better.

“I’m not a quitter, I’m a fighter.”

The polling, conducted in target seats for the Liberals including Churchlands, Nedlands, South Perth, Bateman, Bicton, Carine, Riverton, Scarborough, Dawesville, Hillarys and Kalamunda, suggests another catastrophic election for the Liberals come March.

The party currently holds just three out of 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly, with the polling predicting it’s gone backwards since the 2021 election, from 35 per cent of the primary vote to just 31 per cent.

The polling suggested Mettam leading the party to the next election would result in a 3 per cent swing away from the Liberals, and that swapping her out with Zempilas would result in a 4 per cent swing toward the party resulting in victories in Churchlands, Nedlands and Carine, and putting Bateman and Scarborough in striking distance.

One in five had never heard of Mettam, while Zempilas ranked favourably with older West Australians.

Loading

Mettam said the polling had been assessed by a reputable specialist who said it showed obvious bias and was “an exercise loaded in favour of Zempilas, masquerading as genuine voter insight”.

Many elements of it, including the key ‘aided’ vote measure used to make the central argument regarding Zempilas, had not adopted a statistically rigorous or transparent approach and provided no meaningful insight, she said.

She had asked but had no knowledge of the identity of those who had commissioned, funded or supported the “polling” – only that they were “businessmen”.

“Rather than hide like gutless little cowards in the shadows – they should show some strength of character and be transparent as clearly their intentions are,” she said.

She said while the poll was designed and conducted by third parties to benefit Zempilas, she thanked Zempilas for publicly making his support for her clear.

Zempilas is the Liberal candidate for the seat of Churchlands, not an elected member of parliament; but there is precedent for Liberal leaders to lead the party from the outside. Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman led the Liberals to victory at the 2012 state Queensland election in a similar situation.

Liberal David Honey publicly backed Mettam before the party meeting, while colleague Peter Collier labelled the polling ‘fake’.

Loading

Zempilas declined to comment.

At a morning press conference, Premier Roger Cook said the Liberal Party was a shambolic, broken mess and the timing of the furore during the domestic violence campaign spoke volumes for how shambolic the Liberals had become.

“They can’t even agree with themselves, let alone the National Party,” he said.

“I am not sure how they’re going to come back from what is almost a terminal condition of disunity.

“You’ve got these cowards in the shadows sitting back and waiting for Libby to do all the hard work … they’ve been discovered as not having any policies for the people of Western Australia.”

He said it didn’t “take a rocket scientist” to figure out who Mettam was speaking of when she spoke about those people in the shadows.

Read more:

Teens charged over Champion Lakes fire that shut down Tonkin Highway