Andrew Laming defies Scott Morrison by seeking preselection

Despite announcing he would not stand at the next election, the controversial MP has not withdrawn his nomination for LNP preselection.

Andrew Laming, during question time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House, Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

Coalition MP ­Andrew Laming is continuing to fight for preselection for the Liberal National Party in apparent defiance of Scott Morrison, who insisted he not recontest the next election.

LNP sources have confirmed to The Australian that Dr Laming — who is on leave for empathy training and counselling after a spate of harassment allegations — has not withdrawn his nomination for preselection and will face the LNP’s candidate vetting committee on Monday.

“He wants to acquit himself to the LNP,” a party source said, adding that the MP was collecting evidence in an effort to disprove a series of allegations against him.

If Dr Laming fails to pass vetting to run again in his safe Brisbane bayside seat of Bowman and is disendorsed by the party, there is a possible financial windfall: a taxpayer-funded payment of $105,600, or six-months’ salary, a “resettlement allowance”.

Under parliament rules, a politician who “retires involuntarily” from parliament — including through loss of party endorsement or for reasons other than misconduct — may be eligible for the one-off handout.

If Dr Laming decided not to recontest and retired, as the Prime Minister has said he would, he would not receive the payment.

Dr Laming has denied harassing women constituents and political rivals online, saying his “hard questions” had been “reinvented” as harassment.

He also denied taking an inappropriate photograph of a young female staff member bending over at a local business in his electorate, saying the image was “completely dignified”.

Queensland police are not pursuing the latter incident; Dr Laming deleted the photograph after he took it in 2019, at the ­request of the woman and her ­colleagues.

The Australian revealed that Queensland’s Health Ombudsman had been asked to investigate whether Dr Laming, a registered ophthalmologist, was fit to hold medical registration. And the Australian Electoral Commission is investigating whether the politician breached the law by covertly operating about 30 Facebook pages without proper authorisation.

Last month, Mr Morrison insisted Dr Laming had done “something quite significant” by announcing he would not contest the next federal election.

“He has said he is not seeking re-election. That is not a small thing to do, to walk away from a career in politics that he has served his community now for many, many years,” he said.

Dr Laming issued a written statement late last month saying: “I will not be contesting the next federal election in any capacity.” LNP headquarters in Queens­land has refused to answer specific questions from The Australian about why, if he does not want to contest the election, Dr Laming has not withdrawn his nomination and why there is an applicant review committee vetting meeting for him scheduled for Monday.

“On March 28th, Dr Andrew Laming announced that he won’t be contesting the next federal election. The LNP also confirmed that on the same day,” the party’s official spokesman said.

“Dr Laming intends to serve out this term of parliament and continue delivering for the ­people of Bowman.

“He has given an undertaking to meet the standards expected of elected representatives.”

Dr Laming and his office did not respond to questions.

The LNP’s state executive voted late last month to reopen nominations for preselection after the announcement by Dr Laming. Businessman and LNP small business policy committee chair Fran Ward was the only nominee to put up her hand to run against Dr Laming before the latest revelations.

Barrister and honorary legal officer for the party Maggie Forrest and former candidate for the state seat of Redlands Henry Pike have both been touted as possible candidates for preselection if the party was to for fresh nominations.

Dr Laming has served as the MP for Bowman since 2004.

Despite his long career, his most senior parliamentary position was becoming a shadow parliamentary secretary for ­regional health services and ­Indigenous health in 2010.