Ministers Christian Porter and Ken Wyatt (Images: AAP)

Even before the polls started to go bad for the federal government, ministers Christian Porter and Ken Wyatt faced a battle to retain their seats.

And now with the latest polls showing a 4% average two-party preferred gap between the Coalition and Labor, Porter’s seat of Pearce and Wyatt’s seat of Hasluck will be the centre of fierce campaigns.

This is because — whether the federal election be this year or next — it will be fought in a context where the WA Liberals have been rendered virtually voiceless in the state parliament and the electorate.

In the state election earlier this year, the party was reduced to only two seats in WA’s Legislative Assembly, the house that delivers government. The party was humiliated by the loss of leader Zak Kirkup’s seat and, even worse, formal opposition status going to the National Party.

With Labor now in control of both houses, Nationals Leader Mia Davies and Liberals Deputy Leader Libby Mettam may be like voices crying in the wilderness, but they are at least trying to take it up to the government, especially on health.

As for Liberals Leader Dr David Honey, he’s just off the radar.

The election not only delivered a whopping majority to Labor, it was also a massive endorsement of Labor’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Premier Mark McGowan — Mr 88% in the popularity stakes — has won the trust of Western Australians whereby they can lay claim to be living in one of the safest places on the planet in terms of COVID impact.

Voters support McGowan’s early/fast/hard lockdown policy whenever the virus pops up, and they support his hard border policy.

That means Western Australians enjoy total freedom, going about their business with no restrictions and travelling the entire length and breadth of the state from Esperance to Broome.

It also helps that the WA economy is booming, with the budget comfortably in the black and the rich resources sector a massive contributor to both the WA and national economies.

It is in this context that a prime minister who has demonstrated incompetence in managing the virus and the vaccination rollout will endeavour to save the seats of ministers Porter and Wyatt and other members, and stave off a potential electoral wipe-out.

And with a drastic reduction in the number of Liberal Party electorate offices, the lack of infrastructure, personnel and resources will add to the challenge. The corollary is that Labor’s abundant electorate offices will provide a formidable base from which to fight the election.

While Porter has an image problem to overcome, he also has the added problem of the boundaries of his Pearce electorate being changed, reducing his two-party preferred margin from 7.5% to 5.2%.

Wyatt is slightly better off, with the proposed revision of boundaries in Hasluck delivering him 5.8%, up from 5.4%.

If anything like the WA election is replicated, those margins will be gobbled up extremely quickly.

To avoid this, the prime minister and his colleagues will be banking on the vaccination rollout in the west gathering pace through the rest of this year and into the next, to give them at least something to brag about.

In addition, the PM will have to seduce voters with lavish gifts and promises, no matter how outrageous, as well as campaigning at the top of his game.

Lawrence Apps is a freelance writer who has been a journalism educator at Curtin, Queensland and Edith Cowan universities.