Premier Roger Cook and Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia have failed to allay speculation that the minister will retire from parliament in coming weeks.
It raises the prospect of a by-election in Mr Papalia’s seat of Secret Harbour, which would provide the first test of One Nation’s popularity in Western Australia since multiple voter surveys had the Pauline Hanson party ahead of Labor and the Liberals.
Both Mr Papalia and Premier Roger Cook refused to rule out the minister’s departure before the end of the year, when directly questioned on Wednesday.
“That particular rumour comes around every couple of months,” Mr Papalia said.
“I wouldn’t stress about it.”
Mr Cook was asked if he’d had discussions with Mr Papalia about plans to leave parliament.
“I have discussions with my ministers and members about their careers all the time,” was the response.
When asked if he could rule out a by-election before the end of the year in Mr Papalia’s seat of Secret Harbour, formerly Warnbro, the premier was non-committal.
“Well, I can’t rule anything in or out in relation to by-elections because they are a matter for the parliament,” he said, referring to the process required to call a by-election.
Labor suffered a double-digit swing against it in Secret Harbour at the 2025 election, but Mr Papalia still won comfortably with almost 13,000 primary votes to his Liberal challenger Mark Jones with almost 7,000 votes.
The One Nation candidate, Liam Hall, received just over 2,000 votes.
“All signs seem to indicate that Mr Papalia will be leaving parliament,” said Liberal leader Basil Zempilas.
“If there is a by-election, the Liberal Party would contest it, of course.
“It’s incumbent on the Liberal Party to give those that support the party a candidate.”
Premier Cook said the willingness of the Liberals to do preference deals with One Nation could harm Mr Zempilas’ standing in his own seat of Churchlands.
“The leader of the opposition has essentially said he’s not capable of forming government,” Mr Cook said.
“The people are walking away from the Liberals so in a desperate attempt to cuddle up to those people who have left the Liberal Party, he said he’s going to do a deal with One Nation. What do the people of Churchlands think about that?”
Mr Zempilas said his party’s policies and views don’t always line-up with One Nation’s, but he had an open mind on working with them to “get rid of a bad Labor government”.
Mr Papalia, a former navy clearance diver, has been a member of parliament since 2007, and is best known for holding the portfolios of police, corrective service and emergency services across his career.
The corrective services portfolio was under scrutiny this week after the inspector of custodial services, Eamon Ryan, issued show cause notices to three prisons, concerned that they posed a risk to safety and welfare and the prison system was close to being broken.
