Andrew Hastie has been sacked from the military after posting photos of himself in uniform.

The former special forces soldier, now LNP federal member for Canning, appears in uniform on election campaign material plastered around south Perth.

The Defence Department has confirmed Mr Hastie’s service in the standby Army reserve has been “terminated” for refusing to remove the imagery of himself in uniform.

“Defence contacted Mr Hastie, a member of the standby Army reserve, and requested he remove imagery of himself in uniform from election campaign material,” the department said.

“Regrettably, Mr Hastie did not comply. Accordingly, the army issued Mr Hastie with a notice indicating the intention to terminate his service because he had failed to comply with directions and Defence policy.

“Mr Hastie’s service has since been terminated.”

Mr Hastie says the military should be proud.

“The ADF should be proud too that they have former ADF personnel on both sides of politics,” he said.

“[Retired army chief and Australian of the Year Lieutenant-General] David Morrison politicised the ADF long before I ever put my mug on a billboard. In fact, he hastened my exit from the army into politics.”

The Australian Defence Force does not allow any perceived politicisation of the uniform.

Neil James from the Australian Defence Association lobby says the military must be apolitical in a functioning democracy.

“Such highly visible advertising, without any wider context or indeed other knowledge of the candidate, is particularly liable to be easily misconstrued as the ADF somehow endorsing that candidate or their political stance,” he said.