Libby Mettam | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mettam in 2021 | |||||||||||||||||
| DeputyLeader of the Opposition | |||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 25 March 2025 | |||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Basil Zempilas | ||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Peter Rundle | ||||||||||||||||
| In office 24 November 2020 – 13 March 2021 | |||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Zak Kirkup | ||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Bill Marmion | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Shane Love | ||||||||||||||||
| Deputy Leader of theWestern Australian Liberal Party | |||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 25 March 2025 | |||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Basil Zempilas | ||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Steve Martin | ||||||||||||||||
| In office 24 November 2020 – 30 January 2023 | |||||||||||||||||
| Leader | |||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Bill Marmion | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Steve Thomas | ||||||||||||||||
| 17th Leader of theWestern Australian Liberal Party | |||||||||||||||||
| In office 30 January 2023 – 25 March 2025 | |||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | |||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | David Honey | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Basil Zempilas | ||||||||||||||||
| Member of theWestern Australian Legislative Assembly forVasse | |||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 18 October 2014 | |||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Troy Buswell | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | Elizabeth Hansen-Knarhoi (1977-05-03)3 May 1977 (age 48) | ||||||||||||||||
| Party | Liberal | ||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||
| Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Dunsborough | ||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | |||||||||||||||||
| Profession | Journalist, electorate officer, politician | ||||||||||||||||
| Website | libbymettam | ||||||||||||||||
Elizabeth Mettam (née Hansen-Knarhoi, 3 May 1977) is an Australian politician. She has been the member forVasse in theWestern Australian Legislative Assembly since 18 October 2014 and the deputy leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party since 25 March 2025, after previously holding the position from November 2020 to January 2023. She was the leader of theWestern Australian Liberal Party from January 2023 to March 2025.
Mettam grew up inKalgoorlie andGeraldton, moving toPerth to study broadcasting at theWestern Australian Academy of Performing Arts. She then worked as a news producer between 1999 and 2005 forChannel 7,Channel 9 and theABC and as an electorate officer for Liberal MPBarry House from 2005 to 2014, having moved to the town ofDunsborough in 2003. She was elected to Parliament ina 2014 by-election resulting from the resignation ofTroy Buswell.
Following the Liberal Party's2017 election loss, Mettam was elevated to theshadow cabinet, and following the resignation ofLiza Harvey as Liberal leader in November 2020, Mettam became the party's deputy leader toZak Kirkup. Following the party's landslide defeat in the2021 state election, Mettam was one of just two remaining Liberal MPs. In January 2023, she became party leader followinga leadership spill, defeatingDavid Honey. Mettam lead her party into the2025 Western Australian state election which had a poor result for the Liberals.[1] She was re-elected in the election in her own constituency.[2] Following the election, she resigned as party leader and was replaced byBasil Zempilas.[3] She subsequently stepped down to the role of deputy leader.[4]
Elizabeth Hansen-Knarhoi was born on 3 May 1977 inSubiaco, Western Australia, to Jennifer, a real estate agent, and Peter Hansen-Knarhoi, a biochemist. Her paternal grandparents were from the United Kingdom, and met on a steamship en route fromLondon toPerth, where her father was born. Mettam's mother and her family arrived in Western Australia from England in 1951. Mettam grew up inKalgoorlie briefly andGeraldton for most her childhood, having to move due to her father's work as a biochemist. She attended Bluff Point Primary School from 1982 to 1989 andGeraldton Senior High School from 1990 to 1994.[5]
Aged 17, Mettam moved to Perth to study atEdith Cowan University'sWestern Australian Academy of Performing Arts, majoring in broadcasting.[5][6] She later said "that is something that has lingered with me. I don’t think it’s fair the only option for regional children is to go to the city to further their education." She met her future husband, Jonathan Charles Mettam, while working with him at theAlbion Hotel inCottesloe. She paused her degree to spend a year inMelbourne with him, and they soon had two daughters together.[6] They married on 26 August 2000[5] and spent a year inAdelaide so that Jonathan could complete a qualification in winemaking, before moving toDunsborough, Western Australia, in 2003.[6] Mettam later studied atCurtin Business School, earning amasters in public administration. In 2007, she was awarded Best student in Public Administration by the state division of theInstitute of Public Administration.[5]
Prior to entering politics, Mettam worked as a news producer, which was her first exposure to politics. From 1999 to 2001, she was a researcher forChannel 7 Perth'sToday Tonight; in 2001 and 2002, she was a bureau producer forChannel 9'sA Current Affair in Adelaide; and from 2003 to 2005, she was a producer forABC South West, which put her in contact with her local member of thestate parliament,Troy Buswell, which led to her getting a job working as an electorate officer for Liberal MLCBarry House from 2005 to 2014.[5][6] She was also a freelance journalist for Instyle Publishing from 2007 to 2010, and a seasonal publicist forCinefestOZ from 2008.[5]
Organisations that Mettam has been a member of include the DunsboroughYallingup Chamber of Commerce and Industry, of which she was vice president for a time; theBusselton Chamber of Commerce; the Our Lady of the Cape Primary School board, and the MacKillop Catholic College Interim School Board.[5]
Mettam joined theDunsborough branch of theWestern Australian Liberal Party in 2006, becoming branch secretary from 2012 to 2014 and branch president in 2014.[5] Her parents had been Liberal supporters, but were not members of the party, and Mettam herself was not interested in politics during her early 20s.[6] She was also a committee member of the party's campaign for theelectoral district of Warren-Blackwood for the2013 state election and the secretary of theForrest Division Women in 2014.[5]
Troy Buswell, the Liberal member for theelectoral district of Vasse in theWestern Australian Legislative Assembly, resigned from his seat on 3 September 2014 due to mental health problems.[7][8][9] Mettam soon emerged as the leading contender to be the Liberal Party's candidate for theupcoming Vasse by-election;[10][11] after Liberal Party nominations closed later that month, Mettam was the sole nominee.[12][13] TheLabor Party declined to put up a candidate for the by-election due to Vasse being an extremely safe Liberal seat.[14][15][16] Her main opponent was thusNationals candidate Peter Gordon.[17] Mettam campaigned on improvements to local health and education due to the region's growing population and protecting natural assets. She said she would be willing tocross the floor on the issue offracking.[18] Mettam ultimately won the by-election on 18 October 2014, albeit with aswing against the Liberal Party.[19][20][18] Mettam received 44.3 percent of thefirst-preference votes and 53.0 percent on atwo-party-preferred basis versus the Nationals.[21]
After the 2017 state election, newly elected leaderMike Nahan appointed Mettam to theshadow cabinet,[22] making her the shadow minister for tourism and shadow minister for small business.[5] After Nahan's resignation in June 2019,Liza Harvey was elected leader unopposed.[23][24] Mettam roles in the new shadow cabinet were shadow minister for transport and shadow minister assisting the leader.[5] Mettam was described byWAtoday andThe West Australian as one of the biggest winners out of thecabinet reshuffle.[25][26] From February 2020, she had the portfolio of ports as well, and from July 2020, she had the portfolio of fisheries.[5] As the shadow minister for transport, Mettam criticised time and cost blowouts onMetronet, the government's project to expand and improve Perth's rail network. She also criticised the government for safety issues during the construction of theForrestfield–Airport Link and for the government secrecy regarding major infrastructure projects.[6]
Harvey resigned as Liberal leader in November 2020 due to extremely poor opinion polling.[27][28][29]Zak Kirkup andDean Nalder contested theresulting leadership election on 24 November 2020. Mettam backed Kirkup along with a majority of Liberal MPs,[30] resulting in the withdrawal of Nalder and the election of Kirkup to the leadership unopposed. Mettam was elected deputy leader unopposed as well, making her the deputyleader of the opposition.[31][32] Kirkup and Mettam were both the first Liberal leader and deputy leader since the 2017 state election to not be former members of cabinet.[6] She retained the portfolios of transport, ports and fisheries in Kirkup's shadow cabinet.[5]
TheMarch 2021 state election resulted in alandslide defeat for the Liberal Party. Mettam was one of two lower house Liberal MPs to retain their seats, the other beingDavid Honey.[33] The Labor Party was re-elected with 53 seats in the Legislative Assembly, while the Nationals won four seats, giving them more seats than the Liberal Party and making the Nationals leader the leader of the opposition.[34] Mettam declined to stand for Liberal leader due to not having enough support within the party, resulting in Honey becoming leader unopposed.[35][36] Mettam was given the portfolios of health, mental health, disability services, and prevention of family and domestic violence.[5]
Over the two years following the 2021 state election, it became viewed as increasingly likely that Honey would be replaced as Liberal leader by Mettam.[37][38][39] Mettam had gained a higher profile than Honey through her position as shadow health minister.[39][40] An opinion poll conducted by Painted Dog Research on 5 January 2023 showed that ten percent of respondents believed that Honey was the right person to lead the Liberal Party and that 29 percent of respondents believed that Mettam was the right person to lead the party.[40]
On Friday, 27 January 2023, Mettam revealed her intention to challenge Honey for the leadership at a special partyroom meeting the following week. The move came the same day that Nationals leaderMia Davies announced her resignation as leader.[41][42][43] The meeting occurred on 30 January. Honey initially said that he would contest the leadership spill,[44][45] but pulled out on the morning of the partyroom meeting, allowing Mettam to be voted in unopposed. Upper house MPSteve Thomas was elected deputy leader.[46][47][48]
Mettam and new Nationals leaderShane Love signed a new agreement between the two parties regarding the responsibilities of each party and allocation of resources, although it made little change to the previous agreement between Davies and Honey.[49] Mettam retained her existing portfolios and gained one new portfolio, child protection, within the new shadow cabinet.[5][49] Mettam requested thatNick Goiran apologise for messages he wrote in a WhatsApp group called "The Clan".[50][51] He refused to apologise, resulting in him becoming the only Liberal MP not in the shadow cabinet.[49][52]Peter Collier was also a member of The Clan, but he was retained in the shadow cabinet because he had apologised.[53][54] Mettam dropped the portfolios of disability services and child protection in November 2023.[5]
In February 2024, Mettam requested the resignation of deputy Liberal leader and shadow treasurerSteve Thomas from the shadow cabinet after it was revealed he had been in contact with disgraced former premier turned lobbyistBrian Burke. Thomas had used Burke as a middleman to arrange a meeting with businessmanJohn Poynton to talk about theBluewaters Power Station inCollie.[55][56][57] This was revealed after Mettam had repeatedly claimed that Labor MPs had been in contact with Burke, having declared that she was "very comfortable in saying that there is no connection between Liberal Party members and Brian Burke".[58][59]Tjorn Sibma had also contacted Burke to discuss "electoral, legislative or policy" matters, but Mettam refused to demote him as well.[60]Steve Martin was elected to replace Thomas as deputy leader.[61] Three days later, Thomas was readmitted to the shadow cabinet with his former roles except tor treasurer and deputy leader, despite Mettam saying that any Labor minister who is in contact with Burke should be removed from the cabinet.[62][63][64]
SincePerth Lord MayorBasil Zempilas's preselection as the Liberal Party candidate forChurchlands in January 2024, there had been speculation that the Liberal Party would make Zempilas its leader from outside Parliament, similar to how theLiberal National Party of Queensland madeBrisbane Lord MayorCampbell Newman its leader in 2011.[65][66][67] By November 2024, Zempilas had ruled out challenging Mettam for the leadership, but would not rule out becoming leader if Mettam were to resign.[68] Polling published byThe West Australian newspaper on 26 November 2024 claimed that the Liberal Party faced another landslide defeat in the 2025 state election and that it would fare better if it replaced Mettam as leader with Zempilas.[69] During a party room meeting that day,Neil Thomson moved a motion that the role of campaign leader be separated from the role of parliamentary leader, but the motion failed.[70][71] Zempilas denied having anything to do with the poll, but it was soon revealed that the poll was commissioned by Zempilas's campaign manager Cam Sinclair via his company Ammo Marketing.[72][73] Sinclair quit as campaign manager two days later.[74][75]
Following the leadership motion, Thomson resigned from the shadow cabinet. The following month, Mettam let Goiran back into the frontbench as shadow attorney-general,[76][77][78] despite earlier saying she would "probably not" ever let Goiran in.[79][80]
Throughout 2023, Mettam tried to reach an agreement with Nationals leader Shane Love regarding transferring the role of leader of the opposition to Mettam. The Nationals wanted a combined Legislative Councilticket between the two parties in exchange, which would have guaranteed the Nationals more elected members in the Legislative Council than otherwise would be elected. Mettam declined to take the offer, saying that she should be opposition leader because "there are more Liberals the Nationals in the opposition now, and there will be more Liberals than Nationals after the next election". After Nationals MPMerome Beard defected to the Liberal Party in October 2023 giving each party three members in the Legislative Assembly,SpeakerMichelle Roberts determined that Love would remain opposition leader unless the two parties reached an agreement.[81][82]
As a result of the strained relationship between the two parties, the Nationals announced that they would run candidates for seats in Perth as well as the rural areas they usually run candidates in. The Nationals also announced they would run a candidate against Mettam in Vasse, although they have yet to select a candidate.[83][84][85] In the end, no Nationals candidate ran against Mettam.
After the government selectedWebuild as the contractor to build the women and babies hospital in December 2024,[86][87] Mettam declared she would end negotiations with the company if she became premier.[88][89]
In April 2023, Mettam publicly came out in support of the proposedIndigenous Voice to Parliament being advocated by Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese, which was contrary to the position of the federal Liberal Party, led byPeter Dutton.[90][91]
However by August 2023, Mettam walked back her support for the proposedIndigenous Voice to Parliament indicating her intention to vote no.[92][93][94]
In January 2025, Mettam declared that she would not stand in front of theAboriginal flag at press conferences if she became premier, following federal Liberal leaderPeter Dutton's stance on the Aboriginal flag. She said that "when I speak to West Australians [sic], I intend to speak for all of them and only the state flag and the national flag achieve that."[95] Her position has been widely criticised. Former Liberalminister for Indigenous AustraliansKen Wyatt said that her stance was "short-sighted" and "divisive", and pointed out the hypocrisy of Mettam being fine with standing in front of flags with theUnion Jack on them. Premier Cook said that her stance was "cynical" and "desperate" and abandoned four to five decades of work onreconciliation.[96][97][98]
Mettam led the Liberal party as their candidate for the2025 Western Australian state election.[99] She led the party to another landslide defeat by Labor and premierRoger Cook, giving the party a third consecutive four-year term, and becoming the first party to do so in WA since 1989.[100] The party won seven seats in total, one of which was Mettam's seat for Vasse, against Labor's 46 seats and the National's 6 seats.[101] Mettam however did lead the Liberal's to a vote increase of over six percent to 28%.[102]
On 20 March 2025, shortly after her election loss, Mettam announced the she was stepping down as the leader of the Liberal party in Western Australia.[103] Mettam thanked her colleagues in a statement and said that the election "has not delivered in a gain of seats" for her party as they'd hoped. She went on to say that she "takes full responsibly for the result".[104] She was immediately tipped to be replaced by media personality and newly electedChurchlands MPBasil Zempilas after he revealed he was interested in succeeding Mettam as the leader.[105] Zempilas was officially announced as the party's new leader on 25 March, with Mettam stepping down to deputy leader, a role which she previously held from 2020 to 2023.[106]
| Western Australian Legislative Assembly | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member forVasse 2014–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | DeputyLeader of the Opposition 2020–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | DeputyLeader of the Opposition 2025–present | Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Deputy Leader of theWestern Australian Liberal Party 2020–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of theWestern Australian Liberal Party 2023–2025 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Deputy Leader of theWestern Australian Liberal Party 2025–present | Incumbent |