State Labor MP Kyle McGinn has called time on his political ambitions after failing to win preselection for the new federal seat of Bullwinkel.
State Labor MP Kyle McGinn has called time on his political ambitions after failing to win preselection for the new federal seat of Bullwinkel.
The two-term upper house MP took to social media on Wednesday to express his disappointment about the party politics which saw him cast aside from both the state and national arenas.
Labor this week revealed Trish Cook as their preferred candidate to take on former WA Nationals leader Mia Davies and Liberal hopeful Matt Moran.
Mr McGinn said the decision would not distract him from ensuring people from regional WA were heard.
“Sadly, I was unable to secure pre-selection on the Labor Party ticket in the upper house,” he said.
“Whilst I feel I have given 100 per cent in being a member of parliament I haven’t been able to walk the factional tightrope with party politics which lead me to not securing a winnable position on the ticket.
“I was then presented with an opportunity to represent Western Australians on the Federal stage but ultimately the Labor Party went in a different direction.”
Mr McGinn played important background roles for Labor in the 2017 and 2021 state elections, helping Kevin Michel unseat Brendon Grylls in the Pilbara and assisting Ali Kent’s successful run for Kalgoorlie against Liberal Kyran O’Donnell in 2021.
Ms Kent took to social media to thank Mr McGinn for his support.
Several prominent Kalgoorlie-Boulder identities, including former Nationals candidate Nicholas Fardell, also praised his efforts for the community.
Among recent positions of note in the government was Mr McGinn’s role as co-chair of a taskforce investigating establishment of a strategic shipping fleet, something Mr McGinn has long advocated for.
“We know shipping, particularly domestic trade between domestic ports, has been a link that our supply chain just does not have,” he told a conference in Karratha last week.
“It was important for us to look at what we could do to enhance another part of the supply chain so that there's more resilience.”
Growing up in Humpty Doo in the Northern Territory, Mr McGinn spent his years prior to entering politics as an offshore cook and Maritime Union of Australia organiser in the Pilbara.
Once elected in 2017 Mr McGinn moved to Kalgoorlie-Boulder which also sits in the Mining and Pastoral electorate.
He was one of four Labor members elected to the six-seat outback jurisdiction in the 2021 election rout.
Only one of those – senior government minister Stephen Dawson – is likely to survive Labor’s axing of the system in favour of a single statewide upper house seat.
Rosie Sahanna will almost certainly not be re-elected, Peter Foster would have to hope for a stronger result than expected for Labor, and Mr McGinn saw the writing on the wall early and instead made a tilt for the federal seat.
In their place, a cohort of majority Perth-based candidates have been favoured in winnable spots on Labor’s election ticket.
