Andrew Hastie may well have won the weekend’s byelection on the back of a campaign which touted him as “not another politician”.
But as of about 8.15pm on Saturday, he became exactly that – another politician.
All I hoped throughout this campaign was for the people of Canning to elect someone as colourful and hard-working as Don Randall.
Don and I did not always see eye to eye.
But I had great respect for him.
What I especially liked about Don was his disregard for party-line polish.
His comments – while not always politically correct – always made for good headlines.
He never played it safe, and that’s what made him human.
So far, Hastie looks the goods.
He has already inadvertently referred to himself as Prime Minister and ruffled a few feathers during his victory speech on Saturday in discussing the shopping lists of local ladies.
“Quite a few constituents have also asked for me to continue Don’s tradition of personalised notepads, and I’m sure there’s a lot of ladies out there who’ve had his face and name at the top of their shopping lists,” he said.
Hastie’s promise to continue Don’s tradition of providing notepads emblazoned with his image for women to write their grocery lists on did nothing to dispel widely held beliefs that Liberals are slightly behind the eight-ball when it comes to gender equality.
But it was his first test as a public figure.
And he was the first to admit he is new to this.
My hope now is that any jagged edges he has are not blunted by press officers grooming him for the national stage.
We like our pollies rough and ready.
So far I think Don would be proud of his successor.
And I think he would have had a great time at Liberal headquarters on Saturday.
That’s how I’ll remember this election night – as Don’s party.
Good luck, Mr Hastie. You have big shoes to fill.
Follow Kate Hedley on Twitter: @kateloh
