CITY OF ARMADALE / CITY OF COCKBURN ROAD WIDENING FLYER

Pamphlets and circulars collected from the Canning By-Election in 2015, brought about by the demise of Don Randall. Issued as part of a campaign by the COA and the City of Cockburn to highlight the need for Federal funding to improve traffic conditions on Armadale Road during the Federal by-election.
The Federal Division of Canning was created in 1949 and named after Alfred Canning, the Western Australian government surveyor who surveyed the Canning Stock Route in 1906. For many years the seat was primarily a rural seat that was held by either the Liberal Party of the Country Party. By the 1980s though the seat was a mixture of rural and urban, with urban populations growing around the outer metropolitan suburb of Armadale in the north of the seat and the rapidly growing coastal town of Mandurah in the south. In 2016 following a redistribution saw the suburbs of Armadale, Mount Nasura removed from the Division of Canning and joined with the suburb of Kelmscott to form the new Federal Division of Burt.
In 2015 local member Don Randall, who had held the seat since 2001 passed away suddenly. A by-election for the seat was called in July of 2015. The seat was contested by a variety of mayor and minor political parties, many focussing on local issues including the perceived local drug problem and the need to upgrade Armadale Road. The by-election was to be held on 19 September 2015. Four days before the election the Liberal Party replaced the unpopular Tony Abbot as Prime Minister with Malcolm Turnbull. Earlier that year Don Randall and Luke Simpkins (member of Cowan) had moved an unsuccessful leadership spill against Abbott. Many political commentators expected a 10%+ swing against the Liberal Party. It is thought that the leadership change played a role in minimising the swing against the Liberal Government and allowing Liberal candidate Andrew Hastie to retain the seat for the Liberal Party and the Government with a 4% swing against the Liberal Party. Some of the swing away from the Government was also attributed to the personal popularity of Don Randall. The following year a Federal election was held and Andrew Hastie retained the seat and the Liberal Party in coalition with the National Party just managed to retained government.
The City of Armadale and the City of Cockburn used the Canning by-election as an opportunity to campaign funding for the upgrading of Armadale Road, a road than ran east, west and linked Armadale to the Cockburn Central railway station and the Kwinana Freeway. A number of existing and planned commercial, industrial and residential developments along the road meant the road would become more congested than it already was in the near future. Large parts of the road was single lane. State and Federal money was promised during the campaign and delivered after the election. Construction started in 2016 and was completed in 2022. Over 50,000 vehicles used Armadale Road every day.