State election 2021: Liberals move disgraced ex-One Nation candidate Roger Barnett to last on how-to-vote card

The Liberals have moved a discredited One Nation candidate from third to last place on one of their how-to-vote cards — just one day after he was sacked for repeatedly posting racist comments online. One Nation fired their Forrestfield candidate Roger Barnett yesterday after seeing his shocking Facebook posts deriding Muslims and First Nations people. “I stand up for my family n my rights hail hitler (sic),” read one post, reported by The West yesterday. “I’m a prick I kicked my wife in the kidneys,” read another. Until this morning, the Liberal how-to-vote card for Forrestfield candidate George Tilbury told voters to put Mr Barnett third. Now, the card instructs Liberal voters to preference Mr Barnett in eighth — last place. Labor campaign spokesperson and transport minister Rita Saffioti slammed Mr Barnett’s “shameful” comments — and accused the Liberals of making a preference deal with One Nation. “Zak Kirkup has done a preference deal with One Nation across the State, and you can see that on all of their how-to-vote cards,” she said. “In all seats bar one the Liberals have preferenced One Nation above the Labor Party. “Zak Kirkup specifically stated that he would choose preferences on a seat-by-seat basis — which means he intentionally put the One Nation Forrestfield candidate third on their how-to-vote.” Mr Kirkup likened preferencing minor parties to deciding between “the lesser of two evils” and said Mr Barnett should never have been put on a ballot paper. “We rely on these minor parties to find their candidates and we have to choose between them, that is the reality ... as soon as I found out about those comments we reissued all our how to vote cards when it comes to Forrestfield,” he said. Ms Saffioti also pointed to Liberal upper house voting tickets as evidence of a “dirty deal” between Mr Kirkup’s party and One Nation. Some Liberal party upper house tickets preference One Nation party heavyweights higher than other One Nation candidates. On their upper house voting tickets for the Agricultural region, the Liberals have preferenced Pauline Hanson’s One Nation WA president Rod Caddies 14th. In the South West, the Liberals have preferenced incumbent One Nation MP Colin Tinknell 13th; in the Mining and Pastoral region, they have placed fellow incumbent Robin Scott 13th. In these three electorates, other One Nation candidates are preferenced far lower down the ticket, in 20th or 21st place. The Liberals have also preferenced One Nation above Labor and the Greens in every Upper House region besides North Metropolitan. “If you look at some of the particular voting patterns, or vote suggestions or how-to-votes for the upper house, it's clear a deal has been done,” Ms Saffioti said. Ms Saffioti called on the Liberals to “tear up” all of their how-to-vote cards preferencing One Nation above Labor. Labor has preferenced One Nation last in every seat. Posting on Twitter yesterday, Liberal leader Zak Kirkup slammed Mr Barnett’s posts as “disgusting” “These comments by this bloke are disgusting & have no place in our society,” he wrote. “He should have never found his way to a ballot paper.”