Voters in Scott Morrison’s former electorate will head to the polls on April 13 to vote for their newest member of parliament.
Speaker Milton Dick issued the writ on Monday, setting the date for the fourth by-election since Labor took government almost two years ago.
Cook is one of the safest Liberal-held seats in the country, having been retained by Mr Morrison with a 12.4 per cent margin in 2022.
Simon Kennedy, who narrowly lost the seat of Bennelong during the last election to Labor, moved to Cook on Friday to contest the seat for the Liberals.
Despite the high margin, and the average swing against governments of about 3.5 to give per cent, Mr Kennedy said he wasn’t taking anything for granted.
Labor has yet to confirm whether they will run a candidate, although pollsters suggest doing so would be a risk to the government’s political capital.
Kos Samaras said the conservative make-up of the seat meant it would take “years” before the seat potentially became a problem for the Coalition.
“If Labor stands, and they have a swing against them, then it will build nerves off the back of nothing because they could stand and not spend a single cent and still have a narrative against them. I think there’s all downside, really,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week said Labor hadn’t yet “made a final decision” on whether to contest the seat.
“Cook is not a seat that it would be expected that we would win, but we’ll wait and see,” the Prime Minister said.
Labor has until March 21 to decide whether or not to nominate a contender.
Mr Kennedy, who hit the hustings immediately after being confirmed as the Liberal candidate last week, said he wasn’t focused on Labor potentially not running a candidate.
“Whether they run a candidate or not, I’m out there, trying to understand their concerns and their problems,” Mr Kennedy.
“For me, it’s about how can I listen to them and then hold the Labor government to account on those issues?”