Liberal Party lock in three Mid West preselection nominees for State’s Upper House

The Liberal Party has confirmed three local contenders for their Upper House preselection process in Geraldton, welcoming Steve Martin, Kathryn Jackson and Randall Starling onto their ticket.

Nominations for the Legislative Council will close on April 13, binding the nominees to party rules preventing them from talking publicly at this stage.

Despite regions being abolished from the Upper House structure in 2021, the Liberal Party is still observing the six regions internally.

The electoral regions are Agricultural, Mining and Pastoral, South West, East Metropolitan, North Metropolitan and South Metropolitan.

The existing Agricultural region MPs are Labor’s Sandra Carr, Shelley Payne and Darren West alongside Liberal Mr Martin and National Party MPs Martin Aldridge and Colin De Grussa.

The Liberal Party confirmed they would put forward three local contenders for the Mid West to represent the Agricultural region.

Mr Martin, current deputy Liberal leader, has nominated again and will be in the fifth position out of 18 spots.

Ms Jackson, managing director of WA Planning and Logistics, has put her name forward with high odds of being elected to the 11th position.

A Liberal Party spokesperson said: “It’s a high priority for us to ensure that we do have good candidates from all kinds of backgrounds and Kathryn is a strong independent young woman. We want to make sure she’s afforded every opportunity to get into Parliament.”

Mr Starling, 22, has been picked to secure the 17th overall position.

He has previously represented the region with the WA Youth Parliament, and presented to the State Council on Sunday — focusing on how the Liberal Party is able to appeal to young people.