WA Housing Minister John Carey's campaign strategy in Secret Harbour has collided directly with the public record. Carey publicly branded One Nation candidate Luke Herdegen "gutless" and declared the opposition policy free. However, official records expose 27 published platforms directly confronting WA's 38% housing waitlist surge, all while Labor's candidate shields herself from press scrutiny.

Portrait of Western Australian Housing Minister John Carey
Image: John Carey, via Facebook. The Housing Minister said One Nation had “no policies at all” days before early voting opened in Secret Harbour.

One Nation's state policies: The Record vs. The Rhetoric

Far from operating in a policy vacuum, One Nation WA maintains explicit positions across 27 state policy areas including cost of living, health, law and order, and state development. Its state housing platform takes direct aim at Perth's supply crisis with four core mandates:

  • Immigration and Foreign Buyers: Freeze foreign residential property sales and slash immigration intake until domestic housing supply catches up.
  • Deregulation: Gut environmental and planning red tape to force faster construction turnaround.
  • Cost Controls: Mandate government utility connections at cost to developers and eliminate GST on building products.
  • Regional Decentralisation: Shift development incentives into regional towns to relieve Perth's suburban pressure.

Social Housing and Land Release Mandates

The policy goes further than high level targets, proposing aggressive market interventions to unlock land and protect stock. The state document commits to:

  • Guaranteed state supplied water and power provided strictly at cost to private developers.
  • Dedicated investment spanning emergency, short term, and long term social housing across Western Australia.
  • Opposition to policies that let corporate conglomerates mass purchase existing residential housing stock.

Federal Tax Moratorium and Ownership Bans

At the national level, the party's platform doubles down on direct tax relief and foreign ownership limits:

  • Five Year GST Moratorium: Zero GST on building supplies for new home builds valued up to $1 million.
  • Cost Structure Overhaul: A full review of government charges, which the party argues account for up to 44% of a new home's final price tag.
  • Total Ownership Ban: A complete ban on residential property sales to non residents and non citizens.

Policy Record Blames Labor Megaprojects for Crushing WA Builders

The policy target aimed directly at Carey's portfolio was published long before his public claims. Documented election materials directly call out government overreach, promising to ensure state projects do not crush local construction capacity as occurred under Labor's Metronet and pandemic building bonuses.

Beyond housing, the party’s published law and order platform takes direct aim at Western Australia's police exodus and rising crime rates through five primary mandates:

  • Officer Retention: Boost pay and overhaul working conditions to halt the departure of frontline police officers.
  • More Street Patrols: Put more officers on active duty across local communities.
  • Bureaucracy Reductions: Slash excessive paperwork to keep officers out from behind desks and active on beat patrols.
  • Youth Accountability: Combine youth rehabilitation programs with restorative justice frameworks.
  • Castle Law: Enact Castle Law legal protections to grant homeowners explicit rights to defend their property against intruders.

Five Years of Ministerial Control Collides With 38% Housing Waitlist Surge

John Carey has held Western Australia's housing portfolio since March 2021, yet his political attacks on a political newcomer ignore the vast disparity in executive power. One Nation candidate Luke Herdegen was preselected just under six weeks before the August 29 vote following Paul Papalia's sudden resignation. Herdegen rejected pressure to manufacture policy on the fly, pointing out that a single minor party candidate cannot form government or write state legislation.

Carey, by contrast, has commanded immense ministerial authority across Planning, Lands, Housing, Works, and Health Infrastructure. Despite half a decade steering state development, independent findings from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre expose a catastrophic decline in housing accessibility under his watch.

Under Carey's leadership, Western Australia's social housing waitlist expanded by 38% to hit roughly 20,700 applicants. Even more critical, the state's urgent priority waitlist skyrocketed from 1,462 in 2018 up to 6,300 in 2024, placing the burden of the state housing breakdown squarely on the Minister's five year track record.

Pressed over whether Labor stretched the truth in campaign ads claiming Liberals opposed the Rockingham urgent care clinic, Minister John Carey completely dodged the charge. Rather than defending the accuracy of his party's claims, Carey launched an aggressive attack, branding the Liberal Party "more frauds" and accusing Liberal figure Basil Zempilas of aligning with One Nation.

The Minister's outburst hides a direct conflict between Labor campaign rhetoric and verifiable facts. A detailed examination of the public record exposes the true story behind Labor's health advertising, showing exactly where political claims clash with reality.

We set out what those Medicare claims say, and what the record shows.

Western Australian Liberal leader Basil Zempilas in a dark suit
Image: Liberal Party of WA. Carey said Basil Zempilas was “in bed with One Nation” when he was asked whether Labor’s Rockingham clinic ads stretched the truth.

Carey says Herdegen ducked a debate, and nobody can point to one

John Carey told The West Australian that Herdegen "talks the big game, but he can't even do a public debate". One News searched for a debate invitation, an organiser and any response from either campaign, and could find no public record of one being proposed or turned down. Carey has not said who organised it or when it was offered.

What is on the record is Labor's own candidate. When Roger Cook announced the $156 million Karnup station, 7NEWS asked to put a question to Georgia Tree and the request was refused, for the second day running. Herdegen stood in the same spot and answered.

Herdegen spent the last day before early voting at the Singleton Community Centre with around 100 volunteers, and said Labor had reason to be nervous. Carey said Labor was "in the fight of our lives" and wouldn't say what a loss would mean, telling reporters he wasn't "going to get into hypotheticals".

Roger Cook, Georgia Tree and Luke Herdegen in a composite image
Image: Facebook composite. Premier Roger Cook and Labor candidate Georgia Tree with One Nation’s Luke Herdegen, who took the questions Tree was not made available to answer.

Labor Candidate Disowns Party Campaign as Digital Presence and Funding Claims Collapse

Georgia Tree’s campaign for Secret Harbour is crumbling under direct online comparison and public contradiction. Despite holding official party backing, Tree’s Facebook following sits at just 1,900, which is less than half of Luke Herdegen’s 3,900 followers.

While Herdegen has spent his brand new six-week campaign on the ground door-knocking and directly addressing press questions outside Labor events, Tree has openly disowned the aggressive strategy being run in her own name. Pressed on WA Labor’s attack ads targeting Pauline Hanson, Tree actively distanced herself from her own party apparatus, insisting negative campaigning was "for the WA Labor Party" while claiming her own focus remained strictly positive.

That insulation strategy breaks down further over false credit for state spending and a scrubbed digital footprint. Labor MP Rhys Williams publicly claimed a Lakelands youth park was fully funded thanks to Tree, despite Tree holding zero parliamentary power, no ministerial portfolio, and absolutely no legal authority to allocate public tax dollars.

Adding to the campaign's transparency deficit, Tree's personal blog and personal social media accounts have been taken offline, and One News could find no archived copy of the blog. Yet when pushed on past record, Tree stood by her explosive 2021 declaration that Labor dealt with workplace harassment the way the Catholic Church did, keeping complaints in house and telling staff to stay quiet.

Georgia Tree, Labor’s candidate for the seat of Secret Harbour
Image: WA Labor. Georgia Tree distanced herself from her own party’s attack campaign, saying negative campaigning was “for the WA Labor Party” while her own socials stayed positive.

Surging Postal Votes and Massive 16-Candidate Field Threaten Delayed Result in Shrinking Labor Stronghold

Voter participation is exploding in Secret Harbour as early polling centres open, setting up a potentially delayed counting process on election night. Postal vote requests have surged by 50%, with 5,756 ballots issued compared to 3,843 last year, in an electorate the Commission says has a high concentration of FIFO workers and young families. With overall enrolment swelling to over 36,000 voters and nearly 40% of all ballots expected via early or postal voting, Electoral Commissioner Dennis O'Reilly warned that a record field of 16 candidates will slow the count significantly as election workers sort first preferences before running the crucial two-candidate preferred tally.

The stakes could not be higher for a seat where Labor's grip has dramatically loosened. Once a notional 31.3% Labor seat before 2025, Labor's buffer has been slashed down to 11.5%, putting the electorate squarely in play as voters head to pre-polling locations at Port Kennedy’s old Bunnings building and the WA Electoral Commission's Perth office ahead of polling day on Saturday, August 29.