Shane Love declares Nationals can win more seats than the Liberal party as he unveils Opposition policy

WA Nationals leader Shane Love has denied voters are confused about who is in charge of the Opposition, as he and Liberal leader Libby Mettam hit the election campaign trail separately and concerns are raised over security details. A bizarre quirk of the Liberals’ disastrous 2021 election meant that the Nationals were handed the title of Opposition party, the first time that has happened in the State since 1947. And while Mr Love was then designated Opposition Leader following the shock resignation of Mia Davies this time last year he has conceded much of the political spotlight to Ms Mettam. The rarity of the situation, it can be revealed, has now even seen senior Liberals raise concerns about the safety of their leader during the election — with Ms Mettam denied protection officers for the campaign trail. Sources close to Ms Mettam, who has been campaigning around WA, say there has been no advice provided to her or her office about security arrangements for the official polling period. During the election caretaker period, convention dictates the Premier and Opposition Leader are both covered by officers from WA Police’s Dignitary Protection Unit as they traverse the campaign trail. It means the protection will be provided to Nationals leader Shane Love — whose party won three seats in 2021 to the Liberals’ two. As Opposition Leader, Mr Love is afforded a greater staffing allocations, security and a $306,236 pay packet compared to Ms Mettam’s $248,118 annual salary. He is also provided with a driver, as well as the option to use the government jet to fly to regional WA during the campaign. A Nationals source said the party would likely discuss sharing the jet access with the Liberals, as they had done in previous election campaigns. But they won’t campaign together, despite an admission from Mr Love on Monday that the parties would only be able to form Government as an alliance. Alliance or not, Mr Love also declared his party can “absolutely” win more seats than the Liberals again and that he is as much an alternative Premier, as Ms Mettam. “This duopoly that exists in Western Australia is actually not the norm,” he said. “In many elections, there are many partners which take part, in some countries the governing coalitions are made up by innumerable numbers of parties, so I think this fixation that we have, that there must only ever be a Liberal or a Labor-led government has got to change and I’m working very hard to change it.” The relationship between the Liberals and Nationals has been called in to question a number of times since Labor’s historic landslide four years ago. In March last year Mr Love was forced to deny the alliance was at risk of complete collapse after the contentious defection of Merome Beard from the Nationals to the Liberals. The move in late 2023 meant both parties have three Parliamentary seats each and led to a clash between the parties. During a since-leaked email exchange, Nationals MP Martin Aldridge suggested the alliance was “untenable”, and refused to sit in joint partyroom meetings. It appears concerns over the sharing of resources has done little to allay internal problems It is said to have been a sore point for the Liberals this term, whose failure to be Opposition has seen them denied a full complement of office staff and meant Ms Mettam has had to drive herself. Now, a senior Liberal has raised concerns about the lack of protection during what is expected to be a heated campaign. “It’s a situation where you’ve got the alternative premier, on the election campaign, attending events, sometimes late at night, by herself . . . you never know what can happen out there,” they said “It’s about risk mitigation — you have these systems in place to prevent incidents before they happen. “We’ve been relatively lucky in Australia but there’s certainly examples in the UK and the US where there’s been incidents.” British Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered in 2016 when she was shot and stabbed outside an electorate event in the UK by a far-right attacker, while US congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head in 2011 at a similar event, but survived. The West Australian understands while the convention was for DPU officers to be provided to just the two leaders, the ultimate decision rests with WA Police as to for whom protection was necessary. Asked about the upcoming election, a WA Police spokeswoman said the force did not discuss security arrangements. The concerns come after a number of incidents during the 2021 election campaign — during the height of the State’s pandemic response — where a voter was alleged to have walked up to a Labor candidate and said he was planning to shoot then-premier Mark McGowan. A day later, Mr McGowan’s Rockingham office was closed after a man threw a suspicious package at a staff member. It was later deemed to contain a water-based substance.