Warrego MP Ann Leahy to make roads, health and youth crime priority in lead up to October state elections

Despite the Warrego electorate being a conservative stronghold for 50 years, MP Ann Leahy claims she will treat this campaign like she is in a marginal seat. Find out more.

Ann Leahy MP, Qld Parliament Question Time, Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

Despite having a 50-year stranglehold on the electorate of Warrego, sitting LNP MP Ann Leahy has declared she will treat the region like a “marginal seat” as voters prepare to have their say in the upcoming October election.

Heralded as one Queensland’s safest seats, the Warrego electorate has been held by the Nationals/LNP since before the end of the Vietnam War.

Existing since 1865 the seat of Warrego was initially held by the ALP from 1908 to 1974 before the Nationals/LNP were voted in, and have remained in control of the electorate for five decades since.

LNP MP Ann Leahy first won the seat in 2015, has been re-elected twice and is almost certain to hold the position for a fourth term.

Despite the likelihood of her re-election in the upcoming October state election, Ms Leahy said she would not be resting on her laurels.

“There’s no such thing as a safe seat, I don't treat my electorate as a stable seat, I treat it as a marginal (seat) and I look after it and fight for it everyday as if it was a marginal seat,” she said.

“I fight, I fight everyday for my electorate and I also have a lot of experience to make sure when opportunities arise I seize those and make sure I get outcomes for my electorate.

“Even through opposition there are various things I achieve even though it is a lot harder to do that, for instance I fought and fought for those people at Tara who lost their homes in February and October.

“I worked with the not-for-profit organisations and the state government and we now have that uplift from the SAGs grants which help them get back into a home, I do achieve things even in opposition.”

Warrego MP Ann Leahy.

Ms Leahy said Opposition leader David Crisafulli had made several trips to the region over the past year and while she was unsure if he would be making it to the Warrego electorate during his busy campaign trail he was “most welcome at anytime”.

“David was in the region earlier this year, he was out to Wieambilla last November and in Dalby for a health crisis meeting a little before that,” she said.

“He has taken several trips out to Roma, he is very passionate about the flood mitigation work we are doing out there.

“He’s a regular visitor not just to major towns but to our smaller communities. He attended a function out in The Gums and has really embraced those communities.”

Ms Leahy said there were a number of key issues she would be focusing on if she was to be re-elected.

“One of the things I’d like to see and I will continue to keep fighting for is additional road infrastructure,” she said.

“The roads are the veins and arteries of our region, what we produce needs to get to market and everything we consume needs to get to our communities. I will say more closer to the campaign about some of the plans for local roads.

“The other thing I have fought for and is so important to our region is health services and making sure that we have services in community when you need them. It is a four week wait to see a GP in Dalby.”

Ms Leahy said she would also work to tackle the growing concern around youth crime.

“One of the things I’ve never seen as bad as it is now is the youth crime, I’ve had so many people come to me who have been personally impacted in Dalby, Roma and St George and more and I think we need to have the policy of adult crime adult time because people are fearful,” she said.

“I see a lot of reoffending, I’ve seen them over 10 years face no consequences and now they are out there holding up grandmas with machetes, that cycle needs to be broken.”