A young soldier looks likely to be the Liberal candidate in the byelection for Don Randall’s former seat.
Randall, who was the Liberal member for the Western Australia House of Representative seat of Canning, died last month at the age of 62 after suffering a suspected heart attack.
Captain Andrew Hastie, 32, was chosen by the selection committee on Saturday night and is expected to have his nomination signed off by the state council.
He is yet to make a public statement but wrote in his application “as an SAS officer with active service experience, I have a demonstrated capacity to fight for the Australian way of life”, according to Perth Now.
Seven Liberal party members nominated for preselection for the seat which was held by Randall on a margin of 11.8%.
Labor is yet to decide on a candidate, with leader Bill Shorten saying the party is going through its processes.
Finance minister and senior Western Australia senator Mathias Cormann has not publicly endorsed any candidate, saying it was best left to the selection committee. But WA media have reported Cormann was privately supporting Hastie’s nomination.
“Let me just say that obviously the circumstances in which this byelection came about are sad and tragic,” Cormann told the ABC.
“We are looking as a party to select a candidate who, like Don Randall, will fight for the best interests of his or her local constituents and today the Liberal party preselectors in Mandurah will be making a choice as to who the candidate should be representing us in this election.
“And we will as a Liberal party do everything we can to win the trust of the people of Canning again to represent them in Canberra.”
