00:00Libby Metham arrived at Parliament with a clear message.
00:06It's time for dissenters to put up or shut up.
00:09Weeks of sustained pressure on her leadership came to a head after polling, which compared
00:14the party's likely success under her leadership with their chances under Perth Lord Mayor
00:20and media personality Basil Zemplis, was leaked to Seven West Media.
00:25Ms Metham was given the polling two weeks ago by a federal Liberal candidate who said
00:30it was commissioned by a businessman who wanted her to walk away so Mr Zemplis, the candidate
00:35for Churchlands, could take over before the election.
00:38Quite clearly there has been a lot of mischief undertaken by people in the shadows.
00:45Real questions need to be asked about who the businessman was who commissioned this
00:50poll, who wants to have an influence.
00:54Ms Metham emerged from the party room meeting with her leadership intact.
00:58After a motion put by Shadow Treasurer Neil Thompson, calling for the party to appoint
01:02Mr Zemplis as the campaign leader, failed.
01:06Mr Thompson later resigned from the opposition frontbench.
01:10We must now be united, move forward and focus on the issues that matter to Western Australians.
01:19Labor launched on the turmoil.
01:21What we've seen is an undermining of the Liberal leader by Basil Zemplis and what we've
01:26now seen is polling that's been commissioned.
01:30Now the question is, is how long has Basil Zemplis known about this polling, has he been
01:34pushing it and does he know the business person that commissioned this?
01:38Mr Zemplis says he's recently been told who that person is and says he might share it
01:44with Ms Metham if she asks.
01:47I haven't asked anybody to work on my behalf, I haven't engaged anybody to work on my behalf
01:51to the best of my knowledge, I don't have people working on my behalf.
01:55The Lord Mayor emphatically denying having anything to do with the polling.
02:00It's not my name to share, I don't even know if the name I've been told is correct.
02:04I think that information is for the person themselves to come forward with.
02:08But still not ruling out the possibility of becoming the party's campaign leader prior
02:13to the election.
02:14Is she the best possible leader?
02:17She's the only leader.
02:18You can only have one leader and she's the leader.
02:21So she is the person charged with the responsibility of leading us to the election and I expect
02:27she will.
02:28The question now resolved, according to Libby Metham.
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