Jann Stuckey resigns, Jo-Ann Miller considers tilt at local election

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington is “100 per cent” confident the LNP can hold the southeast Queensland seat being vacated by the sudden retirement of the incumbent MP, as Queensland voters could face two by-elections in the months before October’s state election.

QUEENSLAND’S political leaders are set to square off within weeks in one – and perhaps two – bruising by-elections.

Despite the state election set for October 31, LNP stalwart Jann Stuckey has revealed she will quit next week as the member for Currumbin.

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Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington is “100 per cent” confident the LNP can hold Currumbin.

Ms Frecklington said she was looking forward to the byelection that Ms Stuckey’s resignation will spark and said the party would be running a strong candidate.

Asked about bullying in politics, the leader said it was a “very robust workplace” and referred to the regional sitting week held in Townsville last year, where she claimed Ms Stuckey was “relentlessly” targeted by Labor.

“Up in Townsville that week Jann got completely targeted by everyone from the Premier down because she was standing up for a local issue,” she said.

“It was shocking to see.”

The local issue was the festival SandTunes which the Currumbin MP wanted moved following consultation with her community.

Ms Frecklington said Ms Stuckey was offered support following Townsville.

The leader was also asked whether Ms Stuckey’s decision to exercise her conscience vote on decriminalising abortion in 2018 had anything to do with her resignation.

“No, not at all,” she said.

Ms Stuckey, along with former LNP leader Tim Nicholls and frontbencher Steve Minnikin, faced backlash in the wake of supporting abortion with former party president Gary Spence publicly and privately admonishing the trio.

Labor MP Jo-Ann Miller is meanwhile considering running in March for Ipswich mayor.

Ms Stuckey issued a statement last night saying she had made a heart-wrenching decision to resign because of “ongoing ill-health”.

Jann Stuckey says she has been unwell for some time. File picture

The MP referred to the “black cloud” that’s “swamped me over and over again”.

“I am unable to give the electorate that I love so dearly the attention and energy that I have provided for the past 16 years and hope everyone will understand how difficult it has been to make this final choice,” she said.

“The past 12 months have been a real struggle for me and I deeply resent insensitive reporting I am fed up and or I am spitting the dummy – I am unwell and have been for some time.

“I have always empathised with people who suffer from depression – you read about it often – and from far nobler careers than politics – I thought it would never happen to me but it got me and it’s been overwhelming”.

Ms Stuckey has held Currumbin since 2004. The LNP currently hold the seat by a margin of 3.3 per cent.

Bundamba MP Jo-Ann Miller would have to nominate for the local elections before March 3. Picture: Dan Peled/AAP

Meanwhile, there is speculation maverick Labor MP Jo-Ann Miller is considering a tilt for Ipswich mayor.

Ms Miller would have to quit as an MP, potentially reducing the Government’s already slim majority and sparking a tight race for her Bundamba seat between Labor and One Nation.

Mrs Miller’s possible defection to local government would be another major distraction for the second-term Labor administration, which is trailing the LNP in The Courier-Mail’s latest YouGov opinion poll.

It is understood she would not make a decision for some time, but she would have to nominate before March 3.

Mrs Miller, 61, declined to comment.