Race for O'Connor seat heats up as election is only three weeks away

With the 2022 Federal election a little more than three weeks away, the candidates vying for the seat of O’Connor are ramping up their campaigns in the hope of securing their place in Canberra this year. The staunchly Liberal seat is held by front-runner Rick Wilson, who will be hoping to retain his position for another term after first securing the seat in 2013 and holding on to it in 2019. Mr Wilson has been very active this election campaign, visiting Narrogin, Hopetoun and Bremer Bay, as well as a handful on Wheatbelt towns and shires. Mr Wilson is campaigning heavily on a strong economy creating a strong future for WA and Australia. His closest rival is Labor candidate Shaneane Weldon, who will be hoping to change the seat to red. Ms Weldon is deputy Shire president of the Shire of Laverton and is a Wangkatja/Ngaantjarra woman who has been hot on the campaign trail in the past two weeks. Ms Weldon recently visited the South West and Great Southern regions, including stops in Albany, Denmark, Bridgetown and Manjimup. She has stops planned for Ravensthorpe, Hopetoun and Esperance on Wednesday and will be hoping to meet potential voters. Ms Weldon is passionate about education and preservation of Aboriginal languages and traditions. The outsider in the race for O’Connor is Greens candidate Giz Watson, a former WA MLC from 1997-2013. Being the first openly lesbian parliamentarian in WA, Ms Watson prides herself on fighting for civil liberties and human rights. Ms Watson is outspoken on the topic of climate change and, in particular, the issues surrounding logging. Other candidates for the O’Connor district include Stan Kustrin for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, Isaac Middle for the Australian Federation Party, Morris Bessant for the Western Australian Party, Justin Moseley for the Australian Christians, Tracy Anne Tirronen for the United Australia Party and Brenden Barber for the Great Australian Party. The O’Connor division has been in Liberal hands since its inception in 1980, when it was first won by Wilson Tuckey, who represented the area until he stepped down in 2010. The seat was then briefly held by Nationals representative Tony Crook, who held it for three years before being ousted by Mr Wilson. The O’Connor division is the second-largest electorate in the world, after the seat of Durack, and covers multiple cities and towns in WA including Albany, Esperance, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Boyup Brook, Collie, Manjimup, Katanning, and Kojonup.