West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has been accused of crab walking away from his significant campaign role following Labor's federal election loss.
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Liberal opposition leader Mike Nahan said the premier was front and centre in Bill Shorten's campaign in WA because Labor believed Mr McGowan was popular enough to win votes but it backfired.
"He was the campaign," Dr Nahan told reporters on Monday.
"The fact that he now is trying to crab walk away from his role of the last four weeks on that campaign illustrates a flaw in his character.
"He campaigned hard, he supported the policies in parliament and out to the hilt articulately, vigorously and thoroughly, and now he's trying to say he was critical of them."
Labor failed to snatch any of the five lower house Liberal seats they targeted in WA including Pearce, Swan, Hasluck, Stirling and Canning.
Meanwhile, Labor's Anne Aly is still nervously waiting to see whether she has retained the marginal seat of Cowan.
Mr McGowan, who led Labor to a thumping win at the 2017 state election, told reporters on Sunday that his federal colleagues had a far too ambitious policy agenda.
Political analyst Harry Phillips told AAP it was an obvious decision to have Mr McGowan campaign alongside Mr Shorten and he did not think the election defeat would affect Labor at a state level.
Australian Associated Press
