Mia Davies voted in WA Nationals leader

Mia Davies has succeeded Brendon Grylls as leader of the WA Nationals, while Jacqui Boydell has become deputy leader.

Davies

Image from @MiaDaviesMLA on Twitter. Source: Twitter

Mia Davies has been voted in as leader of the WA Nationals after Brendon Grylls lost his seat of Pilbara along with six other ministers in Labor's landslide election win.

Upper house MP Jacqui Boydell has been elected deputy leader, the role Ms Davies previously held.

Ms Davies said she would be watching new regional development minister Alannah MacTiernan with a very keen eye after Labor - faced with dire state finances - flagged dipping into the Nationals' prized Royalties for Regions program.

"We will start to see Royalties for Regions start to be dismantled," Ms Davies told reporters on Tuesday.

Both major parties signalled during the campaign that hundreds of millions of dollars would be milked from the program for recurrent spending in regional areas, rather than building new infrastructure.
Ms MacTiernan says the program has created too many "monuments" that are in some cases proving too costly to maintain.

The Liberals put up the same argument during the campaign, which Mr Grylls dismissed as nonsense, telling AAP servicing facilities such as swimming pools - much needed in the state's hot north - was up to the local council.

The WA Nationals' all-female leadership team comes after Labor's resounding victory pushed the number of women in state parliament to a record 30.


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Published 21 March 2017 7:10pm
Updated 21 March 2017 7:26pm
Source: AAP


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