Ousted Mundingburra Labor MP Les Walker accepts loss
After a bruising election loss that flipped Townsville blue, outgoing Mundingburra Labor MP Les Walker conceded defeat, reflecting on his achievements — especially the infrastructure he delivered during his term. See what’s next for him.
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Mundingburra’s outgoing Labor MP Les Walker has accepted defeat at the hands of the LNP’s Janelle Poole but remains proud of the amount of health, road and affordable housing infrastructure he delivered within a single term.
Mr Walker is the last of the three ousted Labor MPs in the Townsville area to accept defeat, with their three LNP rivals securing office on the promise of cracking down on youth crime.
On Sunday afternoon, after a day of packing election material and corflutes from across his electorate, aware that it needed to be done before school on Monday, Mr Walker said he had no idea what he would do next.
“I haven’t really sat down and looked at anything prescriptive that I want to do,” Mr Walker said.
“I’ve done so much in my life with so many different skills and knowledge, and I’m always learning, so I’ve got an open mind.
“I’ll just have to wait and see … but I just want to have a rest, I’ve been doing this for over 24 years, and I love helping people, I love serving people.
“So I want to take my wife away and go and have a week or two off and have a think about what we’re going to do.
“I’d like to be able to say other things, but I really haven’t sat down and gone ‘, Hey, I want to be that, and I want to do that’.”
Mr Walker has a varied career, including four years as a Townsville City deputy mayor, and also spent 16 years as a councillor with notable colleagues, including former Mayor Jenny Hill and the next Premier David Crisafulli, who was also a former Mundingburra MP.
But he was also a former union organiser and corrections officer.
Mr Walker began his MP role in 2020 and had made headlines for controversial reasons at times, including when he was knocked unconscious while celebrating his birthday at the Mad Cow Tavern.
He described his political style as one that worked with results rather than talking in “the aggressive way on what could be or should be.”
“I like to demonstrate through actions, and I think I’ve done that very well with the infrastructure being built and has been built and is being built,” Mr Walker said.
“There’s activity right across the seat of Mundingburra, in every corner from the TAFE colleges, through the hospital, to bridges, to roads, by bikeways, to school halls.
“But yeah, I’m not as aggressive as some in relation to what’s being achieved. I like to demonstrate it and promote it.”
He noted there was more scrutiny working within the state government but he said that was the choice of the media to focus on that.
“In local government you’re more agile, you can address things very, very quickly in a local government level,” Mr Walker said.
“And it’s face-to-face contact, a lot of the issues be it parks, wheelie bins, potholes, environmental matters, you can be one-on-one and deal with the community.
“In a state, and more so federal … it’s legislation you’re dealing with, it’s a slow process, delivery is budget cycles.
“So you can put in your budget requests, and then once you get money, if it’s a road, it’s design consultation, detailed plans, and then you go into tender, and then it’s a construction.
“So it’s a bigger beast to work in and to manage.”
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