Foreign minister Julie Bishop was on the hustings Tuesday afternoon, introducing shoppers at Mandurah Forum to Liberal Canning candidate Andrew Hastie.
Ms Bishop said she enjoyed the opportunity to take time from her hectic schedule as foreign minister to meet locals.
“This is such a great part of the state and it’s such a pleasure to be here with Andrew,” she said.
“Everywhere we go, people tell us how delighted they are to have such a wonderful candidate.”
Ms Bishop said she had spent a lot of time in Mandurah campaigning with her friend Don Randall, who died suddenly last month, who she described as a great mate.
“It was a very sad, traumatic time,” she said about Mr Randall's death.
“Don would have been proud that we have a candidate like Andrew Hastie.”
Ms Bishop said Mr Randall’s legacy had given Mr Hastie a great idea of what makes a great and popular local member.
Mr Hastie said he had heard many stories about Mr Randall from voters who remembered him fondly.
“Everywhere I go, I run into his legacy and he’s the gold standard of what a local member should be,” he said.
Shoppers were keen to meet Ms Bishop and take selfies with the foreign minister.
She even stopped in at Zamel’s with Mr Hastie to meet staff and to look at jewellery.
However, Ms Bishop said her focus for the next few weeks was the Canning byelection.
“There’s always foreign policy work to do, but I’ve never seen a better candidate for parliament than Mr Hastie and I want to see he gets every chance to get elected.”
The Canning byelection will be held on September 19.
