Sitting MP Ian Goodenough ousted as Liberal candidate in WA seat of Moore as Vince Connelly wins preselection

Mr Goodenough (left) will make way for Mr Connelly as the Liberal candidate for Moore, if his preselection is approved by state council. (ABC News)

Liberal MP Ian Goodenough has warned of a party “civil war” after losing a preselection contest for his federal seat of Moore to former Army officer Vince Connelly.

He is the second incumbent MP the WA Liberals have ousted, coming a week after former party leader David Honey was replaced in the WA seat of Cottesloe by Property Council boss Sandra Brewer.

Liberal Party members met today to choose their candidate for Moore ahead of the next federal election, which could be held within months of the March 2025 state poll.

The ABC understands Mr Connelly won by a landslide, with 137 votes in his favour to Mr Goodenough’s 39.

Independent tilt possible

Speaking after the vote, Mr Goodenough said he would serve the remainder of his term as a Liberal MP for Moore, but was considering whether or not to contest the next election as an independent.

“I had a telephone conversation with [federal opposition leader] Peter Dutton on Thursday, in which I assured him I would not make any rash decisions,” he said.

“I have not considered that or will not make that decision without the benefit of a well-considered and careful thought process … I’m not ruling anything in or out at this stage.”

In a statement, Mr Goodenough said factional powerbrokers were behind the pre-selection result and other recent movements within the party.

“This could ignite a civil war in Moore that will spill into the [state] election,” he said.

Mr Goodenough said he had been the target of attacks from within the party after holding onto his seat while the Liberals were decimated at the last election.

“Ever since that day I have been undermined by Liberals from within the Party, with incidents such as fabricated text messages being leaked to the media,” he said.

Mr Connelly declined to talk about Mr Goodenough’s performance as the member for Moore.

“I can only talk about my candidacy – I’ve been just so grateful for the strong support from Liberals today,” he said.

The decision to install Mr Connelly will only be made official following a meeting of the party’s state executive early next month.

Mr Goodenough had held the generally safe Liberal seat since 2013, although a strong swing to Labor across the state at the last federal poll saw his margin fall from 11.6 per cent to just 0.7 per cent.

Moore takes in Perth’s coastal northern suburbs, from Carine to Kinross and Burns Beach, and east to Joondalup and Kingsley.

[MAP Moore electorate]

Goodenough plea in ‘hour of need’

Earlier this week Mr Goodenough shared a LinkedIn post calling for people to “support Ian as the popular Member for Moore – in his hour of need”, alongside a news article describing a “bitter factional battle” for the seat.

There has been intense media attention in some quarters about the contest for the seat, highlighting the strong feelings of supporters for both candidates.

Mr Connelly’s backers went into today’s meeting suggesting Mr Goodenough had lost favour among those who had previously supported him.

Connelly’s second bid for seat

This was not Mr Connelly’s first bid to wrestle the seat from Mr Goodenough, having also tried for party pre-selection in Moore for the last federal election.

That bid came after Mr Connelly’s seat of Stirling, which he represented for a single term between 2019 and 2022, abolished and merged into neighbouring divisions, including Moore.

It also followed Mr Goodenough being outed as a member of ‘The Clan’ – a group of MPs including former federal finance minister Mathias Cormann, and WA Upper House MPs Peter Collier and Nick Goiran.

Leaked messages from the group showed how they legally stacked party branches to install their preferred candidates and mocked Liberal women.

Despite the revelations, Mr Goodenough remained the Liberal Party’s pick for Moore in 2022, forcing Mr Connelly to look elsewhere as he tried to remain in Parliament.

He was later chosen as the Liberals’ candidate for the nearby seat of Cowan but was easily beaten by incumbent Labor MP Anne Aly, who increased her margin from 0.9 per cent to 10.8 per cent.

Mr Connelly served in the Army for nine years before entering politics, later working across a range of roles in the private sector.

Since late 2022 he has been the CEO of RSLWA.

Preselections show fragility of incumbents

The result brings to a close the first stage of the party’s preselections for both the state and federal elections, which were largely uncontested, keeping Libby Mettam (Vasse), Andrew Hastie (Canning), Melissa Price (Durack) and Rick Wilson (O’Connor) in place.

Dr Honey was the only other sitting MP to be ousted.

Arriving at state parliament on Tuesday for the beginning of his final year in politics, Dr Honey said he was disappointed but respected the party’s choice.

“It was very clear talking to some of the people that were promoting change that it wasn’t a personal thing about me, it was that they wanted a younger person that they thought would have a longer career in parliament,” he said.

“I obviously thought differently but, look, that’s their choice.”

Both contests in Cottesloe and Moore have been a test of the Liberal Party’s new process of selecting candidates, which was designed to reduce the ability of powerbrokers to control outcomes, including by placing more power in the hands of individual members.

The changes were introduced after the party was reduced to holding just two lower house seats at the 2021 state election, with a scathing review finding “unethical and underhand” conduct and “corruption of the essential mechanisms that guide and are intended to preserve the integrity of the party”.