Councillor Cameron Caldwell chosen as LNP’s Fadden candidate
Gold Coast councillor Cameron Caldwell will be the Liberal National Party candidate in the blue ribbon seat of Fadden at an upcoming by-election, which Labor expects to lose.
Gold Coast councillor Cameron Caldwell will be the Liberal National Party candidate in the blue ribbon seat of Fadden at an upcoming by-election, which Labor expects to lose.
The veteran councillor and chair of the council’s planning committee beat out four other candidates who were vying for preselection in Gold Coast-based seat.
Decorated doctor and former Queenslander of the Year Dinesh Palipana placed second and Fadden branch chair Fran Ward – the only female candidate – placed third.
Branch sources say in the final round of voting Mr Caldwell pulled ahead of Dr Palipana 88 votes to 56.
Mr Caldwell was disendorsed by the LNP before the 2012 state election after attending a pirate-themed swingers party, but has gone on to win successive local elections in the area.
Fadden voters will go to a by-election on July 15 following the resignation of Liberal frontbencher Stuart Robert, who retained the seat last year by a margin of 10.63 per cent on the two-party preferred count.
Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton and his state counterpart David Crisafulli joined about 150 eligible preselectors for the vote at the Runaway Bay Community Centre on Saturday afternoon.
Mr Dutton said last month that the successful candidate should be “somebody who can be a future cabinet minister or a leader of our party”.
Labor does not expect to win Fadden, but the party’s admin committee on Friday evening unanimously endorsed nurse educator Letitia Del Fabbro as the candidate.
Queensland Labor senator and federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said Ms Del Fabbro was a “fantastic” candidate, but was unlikely to win.
“We do not go into this by-election expecting to win it,” he said on Saturday.
“We need to recognise that Fadden is a rolled-gold LNP seat.
“So if we win Fadden I’m prepared to go on the scariest roller coaster that there is in the electorate, but that doesn’t mean that we should vacate the field.”
Last year, Labor recorded its worst federal election result in Queensland since 1996, with a net loss of one seat. Labor now holds just five of Queensland’s 30 federal seats.
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