The new Liberal candidate for the blue ribbon seat of Menzies insists he is not a moderate after dethroning a conservative colleague.
Commando-turner-barrister Keith Wolahan defeated veteran Victorian MP Kevin Andrews in a preselection contest on Sunday.
Mr Andrews, 65, had the backing of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg as well as support from former leaders John Howard and Tony Abbott.
But his 43-year-old challenger had the backing of party moderates.
"I'm not a moderate. I never joined the Liberal Party to be called a moderate," Mr Wolahan told ABC radio on Monday.
"Victorian Liberals are very proudly classical liberals, and sometimes you have to be conservative to protect those values."
Mr Andrews, considered one of the leading conservatives in the Liberals, has been in federal parliament for 30 years.
Federal parliament's longest serving member, he is known as the "Father of the House".
It is the first time a sitting federal Liberal MP has been unseated in a Victorian preselection since 1990.
