Fran Ward frontrunner as Liberals bid to replace outgoing Roberts
Business woman Fran Ward is seen as the frontrunner as the LNP opens nominations for preselection in Fadden following the resignation of Stuart Robert.
The LNP has informed members it has opened nominations for preselection in the Gold Coast seat of Fadden which will go to a by-election following the resignation of Stuart Robert, with local business woman Fran Ward seen as the frontrunner.
After Mr Robert announced his resignation, the LNP on Saturday emailed members to announce it had opened nominations with at least three rumoured contenders for the seat.
LNP sources said the favourite was Ms Ward, the Fadden branch chair and a respected Gold Coast businesswoman who unsuccessfully ran for preselection in 2021 for Andrew Laming’s seat of Bowman, on Brisbane’s bayside.
Ms Ward, 52, a one-time chair of the LNP’s small business policy committee, lost the Bowman preselection to Henry Pike, largely because she was considered an outsider in the seat. But the mother of three, who could not be contacted, has been active in the Fadden for at least a decade and is understood to have the backing of Mr Robert.
Former LNP Queensland senator Amanda Stoker, who lost her upper house seat at the last election, is also rumoured to be considering a run but it is unlikely given that she lives in Brisbane.
Gold Coast councillor Cameron Caldwell is also believed to nominating after winning successive elections in the area. State LNP MP Sam O’Connor, a former staffer of Mr Roberts, is also understood to being urged to contest the preselection.
Mr Robert won the Gold Coast seat at the 2007 election and was returned at five elections, but admitted his political career had “not been a smooth ride”.
He told the Robodebt royal commission earlier this year that he took “absolute responsibility” for implementation of the botched scheme which, between 2015 and 2019, used an automated system to match tax and Centrelink data to raise debts against 443,000 welfare recipients for money it claimed was overpaid.
Over the course of the scheme’s life, $751 million was wrongly collected from 381,000 people, with Mr Robert – who was the human services minister from 2015 to 2016 – saying he defended the scheme as a dutiful cabinet minister despite having concerns about it.
His departure comes following the Liberal party loss of the Victorian seat of Aston at the April 1 by-election triggered by the resignation of former minister Alan Tudge and amid expectations that former prime minister Scott Morrison will also retire from politics and force a by-election in his southern Sydney seat of Cook.
Mr Robert – who also served in a variety of senior roles as minister for veterans’ affairs, employment minister, NDIS minister and assistant treasurer – hoped greater “civility” would return to politics, but expressed concern that division had “well and truly entrenched itself in the current parliament”.
“A kinder, gentler parliament it is not,” he said.
Mr Robert said he wanted to spend more time with his family after dedicating the last 16 years to serving the people of Fadden and the Gold Coast community.
“For me, it was the greatest honour to serve this nation as minister for veteran affairs,” Mr Robert said. “As a country, we owe a great debt of gratitude to those who have served our country, putting themselves in harm’s way to protect our freedom.
“Equally, some of my proudest moments include serving as Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and establishing and building Services Australia – putting citizens at the centre of government.”
Mr Robert said the public would not forget how the Coalition government managed the Covid-19 pandemic while keeping the lights on and ensuring Australians remained attached to their jobs.
“I wish Peter Dutton all success as leader of our party and Leader of the Opposition,” Mr Robert said. “He has my full support to take it up to the Labor government and hold them to account, while at the same time giving Australians an alternative that acts in their best interests – not for popularity, not for social media, just a good decent custodian of government.”
Opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor said that every by-election was “tough”, and that the contest to determine a successor for Mr Robert in the Gold Coast seat would be a “test for whether inflation is being dealt with.”
Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley said that Mr Robert had been a “good colleague over many years”, and that the issue of who would replace him was a matter for the Queensland division of the LNP.
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