Basil Zempilas won by less than 400 votes. Now he’s leading WA’s calamitous Liberal Party

It’s been a momentous few days for the Western Australian Liberals. They have claimed victory in the seat of Kalamunda by a margin so thin Mr Creosote could accommodated it several times after his meal without issue, which looks to have saved them from the humiliation of a second consecutive term as a nominally major party that didn’t have enough numbers to qualify as an official opposition*. This followed a third consecutive wipe-out at the polls for the Libs in what was once a proudly conservative stronghold state.

And now, the newly minted opposition has a new leader: Basil Zempilas. Former leader Libby Mettam stood down after the state’s election, saying that while she took responsibility for the loss, it was “very clear that the constant and ongoing leadership speculation and destabilisation in late 2024 was a significant contributing factor to our outcome”.

So is everything coming up Libs now they’ve elected their sixth parliamentary leader since they last held office? We’ll let you be the judge.

Zempilas was elected lord mayor of the City of Perth in 2020, during which he enjoyed extensive coverage from the state’s only daily paper The West Australian, owned by billionaire media mogul Kerry Stokes. Sure, that some of this coverage came from his own regular column which he declined to cease during the campaign might raise a few eyebrows, but don’t worry, he was happy to use his long-running radio show to allay any concerns about a conflict of interest. Sort of.

He’d been using his media platform to make policy prescriptions for some years — including a 2019 missive that promised, if it were up to him, rough sleepers in Perth CBD would be expelled, “forcibly, if necessary”.

After winning the mayoral race in a tight contest, Zempilas posed with a copy of Seven’s The Sunday Times whose front page declaring him “The People’s Lord Mayor”. In the picture, Stokes could be seen mingling in the background.

Within two weeks of his victory in October 2020, Zempilas demonstrated how seriously he took the shift in his responsibilities by “forgetting” he was mayor and not a reactionary broadcaster by indulging in some jocular transphobia on his old radio station.

Since then he’s demonstrated his credentials for the party leadership by attempting to re-heat the Australia Day “controversy” by criticising Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for an apparent “cop out”. Zempilas said the prime minister was unfairly leaving the decision over whether or not to commemorate January 26 to local councils, and that Albanese should “get on” with changing the date of Australia Day if that’s his intention.

In the lead-up to March’s poll, Zempilas’ employer continued to do its bit, running  “Liberal polling” on its front page predicting an “election wipeout” unless Mettam stood down as leader in favour of Zempilas. The polling was “not sanctioned by party headquarters” the piece clarified, but had been “funded by a Perth business investor” who remained anonymous.

By that point, Zempilas was handed the task of winning the (hirtherto) blue-ribbon seat of Churchlands back from Labor. This he managed. Like, barely. Put it this way, in the wipeout of 2017, the Liberal two-party preferred result was still 63.3%, whereas star power and media hype pushed Zempilas to a result of 50.7% in 2025.

If dysfunctional opposition parties in the post-COVID era were bands, the WA Liberals are The Beatles, rewriting the rules as they go, applying a level of ambition and innovation to their embarrassments that consistently sets the standards for their contemporaries. Now, having regained the mantle of official opposition party by around 100 votes, the Liberals are turning to a man who won his seat by less than 400.

*I mean, the party didn’t qualify in 2021 for that bike The Goodies rode around on, but that’s another matter…

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