Labor’s Kalgoorlie MP Ali Kent has brushed off internal Liberal Party polling predictions that suggest she will lose her seat at next year’s election.
WA Liberal candidate Rowena Olsen declined to comment when approached by the Kalgoorlie Miner about the predictions revealed by the West Australian this week.
However, Ms Kent had no hesitations in telling the Miner she was not shaken by the results and would continue to do her job to make the city better for those who live in Kalgoorlie.
“Polls come and go; I don’t worry about them at all,” she said.
“I’m still feeling good. I can’t do anything about the polls. I just concentrate on doing the best job I can for the Kalgoorlie electorate.
“I get up every day and do everything I can for this community and the job that I love, with the support of the Premier and ministers of the State Government.
“If people in the electorate feel that I haven’t done enough for them, then they’ll have their chance to have their say on the eighth of March, and that’s what the democracy is all about.”
The polling showed Labor’s vote dropping from the astronomical highs of 2021, with the government at risk in a dozen seats, including Kalgoorlie.
Labor’s primary vote dropped to 39 per cent, with the Liberal Party enjoying a rise of 12 per cent to 33 per cent.
If replicated on election day, the result would see Labor comfortably re-elected with 42 seats, with a rejuvenated Opposition of 17 seats, up from just six seats at the moment.
The Government would lose all its 2021 gains, bar one seat, losing Churchlands, Nedlands, Carine, Bateman, Riverton, South Perth, Scarborough and Dawesville.
In the regions, Labor would lose Warren-Blackwood — on the State’s south coast — Geraldton, Kalgoorlie and Albany, held by the party since 2001.