WA election 2025: Dean Nalder to show support for Nationals candidate Donna Gordin in his former seat

Former senior Liberal State minister Dean Nalder is set to snub the party to show support for a Nationals candidate in his old seat. As the Nationals work to contest metropolitan seats at the election, Mr Nalder is set to join the campaign launch for the party’s Bateman candidate Donna Gordin on Wednesday night. The West Australian understands the Barnett government minister is one of many current and former Liberals set to attend the event in the must-win seat for the conservatives at the election. When contacted on Tuesday, Mr Nalder did not deny he would be there. He is also understood to no longer be a member of the Liberals and has been appointed to a range of government boards since leaving politics. But as the Nationals sought to find metropolitan candidates in the lead-up to this year’s poll, they approached Mr Nalder to consider running for them in his old seat. Speaking to The West Australian previously, Mr Nalder ruled out running. “I can’t see a scenario where I would consider re-entering Parliament,” he said. Ms Gordin previously ran under the Liberal banner in the Federal Labor stronghold of Brand in 2010 and 2013. She also helped run Liberal MP Ben Morton’s losing campaign in the Federal seat of Tangney. Bateman, held by Labor’s Kim Giddens on a margin of 6.7 per cent, fell to the Government in the 2021 landslide. Mr Nalder was first elected to Parliament in 2013, winning the seat of Alfred Cove from independent Janet Woollard, before shifting to the redrawn seat of Bateman in 2017. He made headlines in 2016 as part of a failed coup against former premier Colin Barnett, quitting cabinet and declaring he would stand for the Liberal leadership if a spill motion was successfully moved. A spill was subsequently brought on but soundly defeated. Mr Nalder’s grandfather, Crawford Nalder, led the Country Party for a decade beginning in the early 1960s. It was part of a 27-year political career that began with his election to the seat of Wagin in 1947. Mr Nalder’s father — Campbell Crawford Nalder — was elected to the seat of Narrogin for the Nationals in 1986.