Liberal Party Yes campaign head Andrew Bragg nominates to replace Turnbull

Andrew Bragg, who headed up the Liberals and Nationals for Yes campaign during last year’s postal survey, has officially put his hand up for preselection in Wentworth.

Bragg has resigned from his position at the Business Council of Australia in order to nominate for the seat soon to be vacated by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, The Age reported.

Bragg now joins Liberal councillor for Sydney Christine Forster in the race to replace Turnbull, with ex-diplomat Dave Sharma and former MP Peter King also tipped to run for preselection in the long-held Liberal seat.

Fellow City of Sydney Councillor Kerryn Phelps has been rumoured as a potential independent challenger.

Bragg is president of the party’s Paddington branch, and led the Liberal Party’s campaign for a Yes result after previously acting in the role of the party’s federal director.

In his position at the BCA, Bragg campaigned heavily in favour of the government’s proposed company tax cuts which have since been scrapped following last week’s leadership saga.

Turnbull announced he would resign on Friday following his ousting from the Liberal Party leadership in favour of former treasurer Scott Morrison.

Bragg declared his nomination on Twitter earlier today.

I have resigned from the BCA to contest Liberal Party preselection in Wentworth. I thank Jennifer Westacott, the staff & members for the opportunity. Under the Party’s rules, I am unable to make further comment on the preselection.

— Andrew Bragg (@ajamesbragg) August 28, 2018

In July, Industry Super Australia accused Bragg of “propaganda” against industry super funds over a website established by Bragg called Supercheck.

The tool was designed for users to discover how much their super funds were contributing to unions and, while Supercheck was hosted on Bragg’s personal website, the source code for the widget was traced back to a BCA political campaign website.

A BCA spokesperson said that hosting of the code on their For the Common Good website server was due to a “technical error.”