A group of disgruntled West Australian Liberals may be planning to push for a "WAxit" to secede from the rest of Australia, but there's no provision in the constitution to do so, a legal expert says.
The motion to set up a "WAxit Committee" and investigate WA forming its own independent state will be voted on at the party's annual conference this weekend.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will address the meeting.
Constitutional law expert Professor Anne Twomey, of the University of Sydney, said Australia's constitution was written in a way not to permit secession including the words "indissoluble commonwealth".
"There is no provision in the constitution to provide for any state that wants to bail out," she told ABC radio.
The constitution can be changed to enable secession but only by a vote of the people through a referendum, including the majority support of the WA people, overall support through a popular vote and support from at least four of the six states.
"It's a big ask," Prof Twomey said.
Many West Australians support secession, believing it would enable the state to hold on to mining royalties and GST revenue viewed as being siphoned off by Canberra and the eastern states.
However, the reality of doing so is not viewed as something that would make West Australians better off, given how many services are federally funded and the costs of separating and disentangling, as is occurring in Britain and the Europe through Brexit.
"The financial outcome for WA based on this proposition would be utterly disastrous," said federal minister Christian Porter.
"In terms of a cutting off your nose to spite your face policy, I can't think of a more substantial one than this," the MP for the Perth electorate of Pearce told 6PR radio.
There are prominent Liberals that support secession such as WA Liberals president and former state minister Norman Moore, while the conference motion was drafted by former candidate and party member Rick Palmer.
A majority 68 per cent of WA voters backed secession in 1933 but the UK had the power at the time to block the move.
