Donna Kirkland announced as LNP candidate for Rockhampton state election

David Crisafulli was in Rockhampton on Tuesday to announce business owner and councillor Donna Kirkland as the LNP candidate for the state election.

LNP candidate for Rockhampton Donna Kirkland and LNP leader David Crisafulli.

A well-known councillor who ran for the mayoralty in 2021 has been announced as the LNP candidate for the long-time Labor seat of Rockhampton at next year’s state election.

Rockhampton Regional Councillor Donna Kirkland was nominated by local LNP members to go head-to-head with the sitting MP, Labor’s Barry O’Rourke.

Her candidacy comes after teacher and former Livingstone Shire Council deputy mayor Nigel Hutton was announced as the candidate for Keppel.

Ms Kirkland was first elected as a councillor for Rockhampton Regional Council in 2020.

She said as a result of her candidacy she would not be running in the next council election to be held in March next year.

“It’s something that means a great deal to me,” she said.

“As my colleagues tell me in my role as a councillor... ‘councillor, perhaps you should run for state, the things you like talking about are state issues’.

“That’s because when I go door-knocking the people of Rockhampton tell me about cost of living, they’re talking to me about housing crisis, about themselves or their relatives that have been ramped at the Rockhampton Base Hospital, they’re saying these are the things that matter to us.”

Ms Kirkland said the candidacy seemed a “natural progression” to “up the ante”.

“I said this morning it’s time to get up, get out and get the job done and that’s something I really pride myself on, and I hope it’s something the people of Rockhampton can see I’ve been doing over the last four years of this term as a local councillor,” she said.

A Labor seat for a century, Ms Kirkland said that would not deter her from running for the seat.

“I’m very cognisant very much of where Rockhampton has stood in its political alignment over years gone by; that’s not going to deter me for standing up for what is right,” she said.

“I firmly believe the people of Rockhampton are no fools, the people of Rockhampton have been talking to me in my normal day-to-day duties and they’re telling me they want change, they’re not happy with what’s been delivered over the last 10 or so years.”