Perth Voice Interactive

PERTH’S Liberal candidate says he’s been “beat up” by the press over being a former One Nation candidate and staffer, but Pauline Hanson’s party was the only one to back his push for a Royal Commission into the banking sector back in 2017.

Sean Butler, a builder and former hotel owner, ran for a seat in WA’s Upper House for One Nation in 2017 after meeting Hanson at a senate banking inquiry a year earlier. He was trying to get to the bottom of why Bankwest had foreclosed on his hotel assets, including the National Hotel in Fremantle, despite never having missed a loan payment. He suspected the Rudd government had done a deal with the Commonwealth Bank to trim its bloated loans portfolio after the latter agreed to purchase Bankwest from the Bank of Scotland after a disastrous and aggressive expansion program put it at risk of collapse.

“The media has beat me up about that, but I was there just to do a job,” Mr Butler said.

“It’s on the public record through your newspaper that I disagree with her extreme views.”

“ I disagreed with Pauline on a number of things, but when I got the Banking Royal Commission, and after doing the GST work, I resigned on good terms with them and moved on.”

Mr Butler said the Liberal Party welcomed him back, understanding his motivations and after agreeing in retrospect that the Royal Commission had been a good idea.

“The party know that I’m not a nutter. I worked behind the scenes in the Senate for two years and saw both sides of politics.”

Mr Butler’s main campaign focus is the worsening housing crisis in WA, an issue he says is deeply personal. 

“I’ve got four daughters, I’ve got two granddaughters, and I live in an apartment. 

“I see people queuing up to go to home opens, you know, 20-30 people, and rents have gone from $350 to $700 a week. 

“It can be queues of 30 people that only one’s going to get.”

As a builder, Mr Butler argues Labor has failed to address supply bottlenecks, skilled labour shortages, and planning inefficiencies that contribute to the crisis.

“We don’t have the people, but there’s more than that. There’s a whole lot of bottlenecks and planning and all sorts of things. This has been happening for years. We just have to think outside the box and do more.”

He is running against housing and homelessness minister John Carey, in a strong Labor seat, a decision Mr Butler says underscores his commitment to the issue. 

“I live just a few minutes’ walk from the city. I walk into the city every day. I see homeless people every day. I know the issues that are there with all sorts of social issues, and John Carey is the minister for housing and homelessness.”

He says the unexpected success in forcing a royal commission was a prompt to running again: “If I jump and make a bit of noise, it just might help a little bit.”

He credits his advocacy work in securing over $10 billion in compensation for more than 40,000 Australians who were victims of banking misconduct. 

“Previously, I had been in the Liberal Party for years, but the Liberal Party weren’t promoting that cause. In hindsight, the Liberal Party realised that was a good thing.”

Beyond housing, Mr Butler has also set his sights on health funding, ambulance ramping, and mental health services, issues he believes are exacerbated by government mismanagement. 

“Mental health really concerns me because I think a lot of the homelessness and social problems in Perth get down to mental health. Funding for mental health has been cut.”

With WA now receiving a greater share of the GST, Mr Butler argues there is no excuse for continued shortcomings. 

“Of all the states, we’ve got the biggest surplus in Western Australia. 

“We’re a mining resource-rich state. 

“Years ago, we were getting 30 cents the dollar, but now we’re getting a fair share. Why can’t we spend those surpluses now?”

Mr Butler remains realistic about his chances in the upcoming election but insists his primary goal is to spark debate and push for action. “It would be a big stretch to win it, but just to raise the issue… everyone, just about everyone talks about the cost-of-living crisis and housing. I just want to be a voice in the wilderness, I guess.”

by STEVE GRANT