Ex-Bennelong candidate Simon Kennedy beats Sutherland mayor for Liberal preselection in Cook

In a shock result, the next Liberal candidate for Scott Morrison’s old seat of Cook is a corporate consultant who does not live in the electorate.

The next Liberal candidate for Scott Morrison’s old seat of Cook is a corporate consultant who does not live in the electorate.

One-time Bennelong hopeful and McKinsey partner Simon Kennedy won the Cook preselection with 158 votes, followed by popular Sutherland Shire Mayor Carmelo Pesce who received 90.

The result on Monday evening surprised many insiders who predicted Mr Pesce to follow Mr Morrison in the seat.

The other candidates included war widow and inaugural Veteran Family Advocate Commissioner Gwen Cherne who had the support of former prime minister John Howard and army veteran Ben Britton.

Ms Cherne got 35 votes with Mr Britton securing 13.

As revealed by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Morrison refused to get involved in the preselection, including supporting Ms Cherne, despite previously saying he would love to see a woman replace him when he leaves parliament.

Simon Kennedy has been preselected by the Liberal Party to run in Cook.

The preselection comes after former prime minister Scott Morrison retired from politics. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that the Liberal Party “have the opportunity to finally select a woman”.

“I noticed that the Liberal Party have the opportunity to finally select a woman candidate today for Cook. But we’ll wait and see whether they actually do or whether it’s yet another bloke sitting behind Peter Dutton just saying no to everything,” he told ABC Sydney.

Mr Albanese said his party had not made a decision on whether to run in Cook.

“Well, we haven’t made a final decision on that. Cook is not a seat that it would be expected that we would win, but we’ll wait and see.”

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Originally published as Ex-Bennelong candidate Simon Kennedy beats Sutherland mayor for Liberal preselection in Cook