Is Basil more popular than the premier? Cook casts doubt on Liberals’ polling

West Australian Premier Roger Cook has dismissed internal Liberal Party polling suggesting public support for Labor’s $217.5 million racetrack in Burswood sat at a meagre 5 per cent.

The same polling also put Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas ahead of Cook as preferred premier, with support of 49 per cent to 47 per cent, respectively.

Liberals WA state director Simon Morgan confirmed his party had conducted the recent poll of 650 West Australians, first reported in The Australian on Tuesday, which showed 77 per cent of people actively opposed the government’s controversial plans for a racetrack on the Burswood peninsula.

However, in a nod to a poll conducted by Zempilas’ then-campaign manager about the Liberal leadership late last year, Cook told media on Tuesday he’d seen “dodgy polling” coming out of the party before.

“[Zempilas is] a serial offender when it comes to publishing dodgy polling,” Cook said.

“Last time he did it, he did it to undermine Libby Mettam and tried to oust her out of the [Liberal] leadership.

“There was a poll six months and one day ago in Western Australia. It was a poll of the WA people, and it made a decisive decision to back a WA Labor government.”

Outside parliament on Tuesday, Zempilas said his party’s polling confirmed no one wanted the racetrack.

“As with all polling, the only polling that matters is the polling that is around the election March, 10, 2029, but what I’ve read only confirms what I think: everybody in Western Australia knows nobody wants this racetrack,” he said.

“Nobody wants it. Only Rita Saffioti and the premier seem to be persistent and insistent that it gets built.”

Zempilas said recent opposition to the racetrack from federal Labor MP and Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman proved the project was a dud.

“Even their own federal member for Perth does not want this project,” he said.

“It is very, very clear that they have backed the wrong horse on this one and what they should do is the sensible thing, they should prioritise our hospitals, prioritise our health system, worry about our schools, worry about law and order, the issues that people want them to concern themselves with.”

The project has also drawn scorn from nearby residents and a community group formed in opposition of the racetrack, who are sceptical of its touted economic benefits.

However, the boss of the racetrack’s biggest neighbour – Crown Perth – has given his backing, with John Van Der Wielen predicting the complex could become “Australia’s leading sports and entertainment venue”.

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