Curtin’s up, revealing Liberal bloodshed

Julie Bishop’s chosen successor emerges from “The Bloodshed’’ to deal with fallout of what some privately call “a good hit” on her.

Erin Watson-Lynn, left, and Celia Hammond, right, are battling for Julie Bishop’s seat of Curtin.

In the beachside suburb of Cottesloe, in the heart of the prized seat of Curtin, is Perth’s most exquisite grocery store.

Locals call it “The Bloodshed” because it is not cheap.

As the battle for Curtin erupted yesterday, former foreign minister Julie Bishop’s chosen successor emerged from the store (whose actual name is Boatshed Market) to deal with the fallout of what some conservative foes privately described as “a good hit” on her.

Erin Watson-Lynn, 33, was in the news over old Twitter posts. In one from 2013, she was watching Ms Bishop make a point on the panel of ABC’s Q&A and posted: “Ooh, I don’t like you but well played Julie Bishop, well played”.

In Curtin, Ms Bishop’s popularity with electors is a phenomenon. She won the seat in 1998 with a primary vote of 44.6 per cent and increased it to 65.6 per cent at the last election.

In Cottesloe yesterday, Ms Watson-Lynn’s supporters seemed more concerned that she had said “I don’t like you” to Ms Bishop than by her declaration on Twitter the same year that she was “a non-Liberal voter”.

Neither Ms Bishop nor her conservative enemies have publicly backed a candidate, but her resignation has created what many see as a struggle with West Australian Liberal powerbroker Mathias Cormann over who should ­succeed her.

By midday yesterday, there was a potential problem for backers of the firming favourite, 50-year-old former University of Notre Dame vice-chancellor Celia Hammond. It emerged that in 2017, Ms Hammond sent an email to the student organisation at the Catholic university, describing the rainbow pride flag as politically charged.

In the postal survey on same-sex marriage last year, 77.2 per cent of Curtin electors chose Yes. It was the highest Yes vote in Western Australia. One Liberal insider said: “It’s getting very nasty And it’s nothing the candidates themselves have signed up for.”

Some are worried the stoush, if it gets out of hand, makes the ­Liberals vulnerable to a good ­independent candidate in Curtin, which is considered “teal” because the Greens’ primary vote is almost as high as Labor’s.

Ms Hammond’s resignation from Notre Dame last month to contest the Curtin preselection sparked rumours that Ms Watson-Lynn would bow out. But she appeared to be pushing on yesterday.

Her supporters are clearly hoping that the Curtin division’s 60 preselectors dismiss the six-year-old tweets as the musings of a young woman who had not yet met Ms Bishop. Ms Watson-Lynn went on to start a business and has been a party member since 2015.

The student association at Notre Dame yesterday praised Ms Hammond’s handling of the rainbow flag dispute of two years ago. A row arose after persons unknown twice took down postage-stamp sized stickers of the Rainbow flag from the student organisation’s windows.

Ms Hammond wrote to the student association’s then president, Dylan Gojak, and condemned homophobia.

She said that while Notre Dame University did not endorse the rainbow flag, and did not approve of it being displayed on any other parts of the university campus, the university was not seeking for it to be removed from the two windows of the Student Association office at this time. “I appreciate the reasons as to why the stickers were placed on the windows by the Student Association — namely, to show that the Student Association is a place of inclusion, support and of welcome for all,” she wrote to Mr Gojak.

“It was not intended to be divisive nor was it intended to be a political statement. Not only do I appreciate the reasons, I fully support these reasons … The concerns here are that the display of the politically charged stickers on the property of the university could be viewed as an endorsement by the university of matters which are inconsistent with Catholic teachings, and that those who are trying to live their lives consistent with those teachings may feel threatened and/or confused by this.”

Association president Monty Nathan said Ms Hammond had helped establish Stripes, a new club for LGBTIQ students. “She was very supportive,” he said.