The Labor party and Palmer United party (PUP) officially announced their candidates for the September 19 by-election Canning today.
Opposition party leader Bill Shorten and federal member for Perth Alannah MacTiernan introduced former WA law society president Matt Keogh as their candidate at Mr Keogh’s Kelmscott family home.
Clive Palmer introduced PUP’s candidate, business executive Vimal Sharma, at an event outside the electorate in Fremantle at the Esplanade hotel.
Mr Keogh went to St Francis Xavier school in Armadale and chaired the community reference group for the former Armadale redevelopment authority.
Ms MacTiernan said Labor’s campaign for Canning would focus on job creation, training and renewable energy.
Mr Keogh said he had grown up in the area and wanted to advocate for the local community’s needs.
“I first started working in the local law firm which my grandfather had started here in Kelmscott, I then started working there as a local lawyer working for the local people of Armadale and Kelmscott,” he said.
“I’ve worked in this community as a youth group leader, I’ve worked with St John ambulance as a volunteer, I’ve worked on the board of an organisation running refuges for victims of domestic violence.
“All of that work and my work as a lawyer has been around advocating for people and for helping them out and I want to continue doing that.”
Mr Sharma ran for the federal electorate of Cowan in the 2013 election and has served as managing director of WA at Mr Palmer’s Mineralogy.
The PUP would focus on GST revenue throughout its campaign.
Mr Sharma said it was time West Australians sent a clear message that GST raised in WA needed to stay in WA.
“It’s time that we elect politicians who are going to stand up for Western Australians and who are committed to serving their constituents,” he said.
“I have decided to put my hand up and to run for parliament because I want to make a stand.”
Kelmscott resident Steve Marshall, who had said he would run as an independent, announced he would no longer run in the election following a meeting with expected Liberal candidate Andrew Hastie.
Mr Marshall said Mr Hastie had: “the integrity, honour, and leadership skills to be an excellent representative as the member for Canning.”
With Prime Minister Tony Abbott also in Perth, Mr Hastie, a former SAS soldier, was expected to be officially announced as the Liberal candidate by tomorrow.
Teresa van Lieshout, who was born in Mundijong, has said she will run as a candidate for the Voter rights party (Australia) however the party was not listed on the Australian electoral commission’s (AEC) list of registered parties.
Ms van Lieshout was a member of PUP for two weeks in 2013.
In the same year she ran unsuccessfully as a federal candidate in the seat of Fremantle for the Australian Protectionist party where she won 205 votes out of a possible 93,0245 or 0.24 per cent. The party was deregistered by the AEC in June.
Ms van Lieshout also ran at the 2013 state election as a candidate in the seat of Willagee where she received 361 votes out of 21,381 or 1.81 per cent.
Last year she ran in the Vasse by-election in the former seat of Troy Buswell where she received 274 votes out of a total of 20,430 or 1.38 per cent.
Ms van Lieshout ran as a an independent candidate in the 2014 WA senate election where she received 169 votes out of a total of more than 1.3 million or 0.01 per cent.
Canning voters must be enrolled before electoral rolls close at 8pm on August 24.
Nominations to stand at the election must be made by midday on August 27 with the declaration of nominations to be made by the Electoral Commission on August 28.
