By-election fever grips major parties

A decision on when five by-elections will be held is expected next week, after a group of federal MPs quit, mostly over the dual citizenship crisis.

Speaker Tony Smith.

House of Representatives Speaker, Tony Smith, will decide when the by-elections will be held. (AAP) Source: AAP

Early election fever has gripped both major parties ahead of a string of by-elections to be held across the country as soon as July.

Wednesday's High Court ruling against Labor senator Katy Gallagher triggered a 'Super Saturday' of by-elections after four MPs resigned in response hours later.

"The Turnbull Government is building a stronger economy," Treasurer Scott Morrison said in Melbourne, spruiking the coalition's post-budget message.

"A stronger economy is what guarantees everything else."
Labor MPs Justine Keay, Susan Lamb and Josh Wilson as well as crossbench MP Rebekha Sharkie will all recontest their seats in the upcoming by-elections.

The citizenship status of the four MPs shared similar doubts to those of Ms Gallagher when they nominated to run for parliament.

West Australian Labor MP Tim Hammond resigned for family reasons, with WA Labor State secretary Patrick Gorman likely to run instead.

Despite Labor holding only a slim margin of 3.3 per cent in Perth, the Liberals ruled out running any candidates in either of the two WA by-elections.

"We will not be distracted by Bill Shorten's duplicity and dishonesty that has resulted in a number of by-elections being required across the country around 12 months from the next Federal Election, by contesting the Fremantle and Perth by-election," the Liberals WA Twitter account tweeted on Saturday.

Instead, they would direct their resources solely to the state by-election of Darling Range prompted by the resignation of former MP Barry Urban.

The Greens will run climate change policy expert and campaigner Caroline Perks in Perth.

Meanwhile, the Liberals announced their candidate to contest the north-west Tasmanian seat of Braddon would be former MP Brett Whiteley.

Mr Whiteley previously held the seat from 2013 to 2016 before being unseated by Labor's Justine Keay.


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By AAP-SBS

Presented by Yang J. Joo

Source: AAP, SBS




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