Former SAS commander and member for Canning Andrew Hastie has vowed to continue defying Australian Defence Force orders to remove photos of him wearing military garb from election campaign material.
The ADF said it had contacted both Mr Hastie and Pat O'Neill, Labor's candidate for the LNP-held seat of Brisbane, asking them to remove images featuring them in army uniform from their political promotions.
"Defence policy is designed to ensure that the ADF remains apolitical," a spokesman said.
"ADF members are therefore not permitted to participate in any political activity in uniform, unless they are pre-approved to do so by an appropriate authority."
The ADF said its rules also applied to reservists.
Mr Hastie, an Afghanistan war veteran and an army reservist, says he is no longer under the ADF's authority and won't remove the image, which show him in desert camouflage in 2009, from posters and billboards.
"Like a stone wall, it will stay there," he told ABC radio on Thursday.
"It was used throughout the September by-election and no-one has said a word over the last nine months about this.
"It's only been raised in the context of the Labor candidate for Brisbane Patrick O'Neill having his own poster which paraphrases army mottos, 'serving the nation', for example."
Mr Hastie's campaign poster, which also shows him holding newborn son Jonathan alongside his wife Ruth, is emblazoned with the slogan "not another politician".
West Australian Labor MP and formal naval frogman Paul Papalia has backed Mr Hastie, but political analyst Harry Phillips told AAP his military history shouldn't feature so heavily in his campaign.
Australia Defence Association executive director Neil James says it is wrong for Mr Hastie and Mr O'Neill to use the defence force as an election campaign prop because politics and the military should be separate.
Mr James and Prof Phillips agree, however, that images of military service in election campaigning is acceptable if it is among a series of photos depicting the candidate's life experiences, so it can be viewed in context.
Member for Perth Alannah MacTiernan said comments made by Mr Hastie during last year's Canning by-election campaign - that while serving in Afghanistan, he "didn't feel Labor had our backs" - were more of a concern.
"That overstepped the mark and shocked a lot of people," she told 6PR radio.
