Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull was in Halls Head Monday afternoon, inspecting the progress of the government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) roll-out and campaigning for Andrew Hastie, the Liberal candidate for the Canning byelection.
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Mr Turnbull, who caught the train from Perth, said it was fantastic being in Mandurah and thought the rail service was better than those in his home city of Sydney.
“The train is such a great asset – it’s new and really very fast,” he said.
“It’s such a great way to meet local people.
“I met an amateur radio operator who had an issue about spectrum I wasn’t aware of, and we’re fixing that now.
“We met people who were very excited to meet Andrew Hastie.”
Mr Turnbull said he caught public transport as much as he could.
“One thing I can tell you is that you don’t meet any voters in a Commonwealth car at 8.58am.”
Mr Turnbull also visited Halls Head Central shopping centre to meet shoppers and speak to media.
Mr Hastie rejected the idea that Liberal party infighting was having an impact on the Canning byelection.
“I haven’t heard anything about it,” he said.
“I’m focused on the people of Canning, I’ve been speaking to the people of Canning and they’re interested in what’s going on right here, right now and that’s jobs, drugs and infrastructure, roads in particular.”
When asked about the popularity of prime minister Tony Abbott and calls by Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos for the sacking of government leakers, Mr Turnbull said talk about the internal workings of Canberra was a distraction.
“I am here focused on Andrew Hastie’s election,” he said.
“The Labor party know we have an outstanding candidate in Andew Hastie so they don’t want to talk about him, they want to talk about other issues.
“Mr Keogh seems a perfectly nice bloke, I don’t know him, but they never want to talk about him, they want to talk about everything else.
“We’re proud of our candidate and we want to focus on him,” Mr Turnbull said.
The Canning byelection will be held on September 19. Follow Nathan Hondros on twitter: @nathanhondros.