Peter Dutton is holding his press conference – he is in WA and has Andrew Hastie, his shadow defence minister with him.

Hastie is standing in front of Liberal branding which is quite rare for Hastie this campaign – he has been standing in front of his own branding which just has his name and his seat. It’s not even Liberal blue – he has chosen a darker blue for his events and signage.

He doesn’t look comfortable as he listens to Dutton talk about how happy he is to stand up with him. Hastie hasn’t been backing in Dutton when needed in this campaign – he refused to back away from his previous comments that he didn’t believe women should be in combat units – and has been notably quiet for someone with such a high profile Coalition portfolio.

According to Liberal sources, Hastie has been supporting Angus Taylor in his bid to take over the leadership in the event that Dutton falls short of the 65-68 seats the party has set as an internal target for Dutton to continue as leader in the event he loses the election. There are those who believe he would be deputy to Dutton and then take over the leadership before the next election.

Anyways, this is an uncomfortable press conference and for once, it is not just because Michaelia Cash is there.