Veteran Liberal MP Kevin Andrews loses preselection fight for Menzies

Howard-era veteran Kevin Andrews has been rolled in a Liberal preselection struggle in Victoria despite getting endorsements from party luminaries and the backing of number of senior ministers in the Morrison government.

© Provided by The Guardian
Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Barrister Keith Wolahan, a former particular forces captain, shipped the upset, profitable Liberal preselection for the federal seat of Menzies comfortably on Sunday afternoon. In accordance to celebration resources the vote was 181 votes to 111.

Andrews, a outstanding get together conservative, is a previous defence, immigration and employment minister. He has served in federal parliament for 30 decades.

Towards the stop of previous 7 days, Wolahan backers in the Victorian Liberal get together felt they had the numbers to unseat Andrews, but senior figures, like the wellness minister Greg Hunt, the instruction minister Alan Tudge, and conservative powerbroker and assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar were campaigning for the incumbent.

© Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Well known Liberal celebration conservative Kevin Andrews, who has served in federal parliament for 30 yrs, has misplaced preselection for the seat of Menzies.

One Liberal quipped soon soon after Sunday’s upset: “Perhaps Greg Hunt should have spent the week on the mobile phone to the European Union instead than hassling social gathering customers about their vote in Menzies” – which is a reference to emerging likely offer complications with Covid-19 vaccines.

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Andrews experienced also been backed in the preselection struggle by the treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Previous 7 days Frydenberg told the ABC Andrews experienced a “very strong monitor record” and had pitched a five-12 months strategy to his constituents as element of his marketing campaign to hold the seat.

Frydenberg explained Wolahan was “respected as a law firm, a soldier and as a celebration member” and customers have been entitled to obstacle sitting down associates. But he acknowledged that he, along with Scott Morrison and John Howard, experienced “put pen to paper to aid Kevin Andrews”.

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Offered his general public backing of the incumbent, Frydenberg was requested very last 7 days irrespective of whether he would be found as weak institutionally if Sunday’s vote set up Wolahan somewhat than Andrews as the Menzies applicant. The treasurer is the most senior Victorian Liberal in the federal parliament. Frydenberg dead-batted: “They say that each time there is a preselection”.

The resounding character of Wolahan’s preselection victory does raise important issues about the affect Victorian ministers are in a position to training around their dwelling division, which has been riven by factional infighting and persistent claims of department stacking.

Frydenberg – who tries to maintain a foot in all camps when it will come to interior intrigues – attended Sunday’s preselection ballot. Resources in the area told Guardian Australia the treasurer informed social gathering associates as the votes were counted whomever emerged the victor would be welcomed by the celebration space in Canberra.

Right after the upset, the treasurer thanked Andrews for his parliamentary assistance and declared: “The Liberal get together in the seat of Menzies has commenced a new chapter.”

Wolahan, who has been a member of the get together considering the fact that his youth and is explained by allies as a traditional Victorian Liberal, campaigned for the Menzies preselection with no superior-powered endorsements, but with the assist of bash customers both of those regionally and in Canberra in search of generational improve.

The preselection was originally scheduled for March but was delayed since of the pandemic.