August 25, 2010 Is Tony Crook, new Nationals MP for O'Connor, a member of the Coalition?
Since election night I have received more than 50 e-mails from members of the public wanting to know why I have included Tony Crook, the new Nationals MP for O'Connor, in the total of seats for the Coalition.
Mr Crook, like every other WA National candidate, was nominated under the umbrella of the Federally registered National Party. He appeared on the ballot paper with the party affiliation of 'The Nationals', as did all National Party candidates in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. As far as party registration with the Electoral Commission is concerned, Mr Crook is in the same party as National MPs from other states.
If after the election Mr Crook or the WA Nationals no longer wish to be treated in this way, I can say on behalf of the ABC we are prepared to consider instructions from Mr Crook that he does not wish to be included in the total of seats for the Coalition.
If we receive such instruction to remove Mr Crook from the total of Coalition seats, we will take such action and ensure that it receives appropriate news coverage.
UPDATE: The following comment was provided to me by the WA National Party
"The Nationals WA as an independent political party are not bound by the rules of a coalition agreement. We unashamedly make decisions based on what is best for our electorates and Western Australia. We had made a request to Antony Green from the ABC to have Tony Crook s number counted separately to the Coalition. We were advised by Antony that we could not achieve this without separating him from The Nationals due to the way in which the ABC election site was programmed. At this point we made a call that whilst Tony has not pledged his support for the Coalition, he is a National and should be counted as one."
