Former Opposition leader Mia Davies has confirmed that she is being courted by Federal Nationals to run in the new seat of Bullwinkel as the party tries to regain a WA presence in Canberra.
Speaking exclusively to The West Australian on Tuesday, Ms Davies confirmed rumours that she had been approached by senior Nationals over east about contesting the electorate.
“I’ve got a job. I’m the member for Central Wheatbelt. Certainly, there have been people suggesting that because there’s parts of the (Bullwinkel) electorate in my current electorate that it might be something that I’d like to look at,” she said.
“Obviously the new boundaries have just been announced and the party is considering what that looks like going forward. Those discussions are being had at an organizational level.”
The new seat, proposed by the Electoral Commission in May, stretches from Roleystone and Kalamunda in the west, to Northam and York in the east.
Ms Davies current State electorate of Central Wheatbelt includes Northam and York, stretching to Southern Cross in the east.
“I’m very focused on what I’ve got to do for the next six months,” she said.
“Those conversations might be happening but at this stage for me, I’m just focused on our very small opposition and on the task we’ve got here in Western Australia.”
Asked if she was ruling out a Federal tilt, Ms Davies said: “I’ve got a job for the moment, I’m very happy with it.”
The Nationals have been without a Federal member from WA since one-term O’Connor MP Tony Crook quit parliament in 2013.
Bullwinkel is considered winnable, particularly given the anger among farmers and regional communities about the Federal Government’s plans to shut down the live sheep trade.
The West Australian has spoken to senior Federal Nationals who believe the popular Ms Davies is the ideal candidate.
Unlike in other States, the Liberals and Nationals do not have an agreement in WA to prevent head-to-head contests between candidates from the Coalition partners.
Ms Davies, 45, announced her shock retirement from State politics in 2023, saying that she did not have any “fuel left in the tank”.
“In March 2025, I will have been a member of parliament for 17 years, the last 10 of which have been in some form of higher office, either as a minister, deputy leader of the party, the leader of the party and for the last two years the leader of the opposition alliance,” she said.
“I’ve been very upfront throughout my parliamentary career that I was determined not to be a career parliamentarian and 17 years I feel is enough for me.”
Following Labor’s landslide 2021 election and the decimation of the Liberal Party to just two seats, Ms Davies became the first National Party Opposition leader in more than 80 years.
Contesting Bullwinkel would not be the first time Ms Davies has stepped into the Federal political arena, causing an internal stir in 2018 by publicly calling for then-Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce to resign amid allegations of sexual harassment from pastoral leader Catherine Marriott.