Wanneroo Mayor Tracey Roberts opens up on potential bid for Liberal MP Christian Porter’s seat of Pearce

Wanneroo Mayor Tracey Roberts says she was humbled when asked to run in the Federal Election and was thinking about whether to do so. Mrs Roberts said she was approached about running for Labor in the Pearce electorate against Liberal MP Christian Porter shortly before flying to Geraldton and the Gascoyne region last week. “It’s a real honour and I’m really humbled to be approached,” she said. “To represent your community at a national level is a real privilege.” Mrs Roberts said she was still in the process of thinking about it, and needed to discuss it with all her family before she made a decision. “My priority right now is the community of Wanneroo and being the mayor,” she said. Mrs Roberts said she was not a member of any party when approached to lodge a pre-selection expression of interest with WA Labor before the June 10 deadline. The West Australian identified her as the frontrunner to be Labor’s candidate last week. The trip to the Gascoyne region included visiting cyclone-affected communities in her capacity as WA Local Government Association president. At Tuesday’s council meeting, Cr Paul Miles, who unsuccessfully ran as a Liberal candidate in the State Election, asked how the administration would “deal with” the mayor entering the political scene. Chief executive Daniel Simms said they would take guidance from the Local Government Act. Mrs Roberts was first elected to Wanneroo Council in 2003 and became mayor in 2011, retaining the seat in 2015 and 2019. The Electoral Commission for WA finalised federal electoral boundaries this month, which will be gazetted in August ahead of the next election. Significant changes are planned for Pearce, reducing its geographical and population size by transferring Wheatbelt and City of Swan areas to neighbouring electorates. Pearce would then gain about 47,000 electors from Cowan, including Wanneroo suburbs from Tapping to Landsdale. WA Labor State Secretary Tim Picton said the party had several strong potential candidates across WA, and would announce the team in coming weeks after the pre-selection process finished. The party’s expression of interest process is confidential, with people who expressed an interest required to formally nominate to the party before being preselected. It could require a ballot process if more than one candidate nominates for a seat. Labor expected to choose candidates in Pearce, Hasluck and Swan by late June or early July, and Moore shortly thereafter. Anne Aly will recontest Cowan.

Wanneroo Mayor Tracey Roberts opens up on potential bid for Liberal MP Christian Porter’s seat of Pearce

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