How George Christensen missed daughter’s birth and almost lost his wife

Controversial Queensland MP George Christensen has formally farewelled parliament today, revealing harrowing new details about why he decided to exit federal politics.

Controversial Queensland MP George Christensen has for the first time detailed his wife’s brush with death during childbirth and how he missed the arrival of his daughter due to Covid-19 border chaos, politics and a visit to Julian Assange.

The intensely private Dawson MP has also made the rare move to share family photos, as he reveals the earth-shattering factors behind the decision to exit federal politics.

While Mr Christensen has referred in passing to becoming a father, he has used his valedictory speech in parliament on Thursday to widely introduce his “beautiful” 20-month old daughter Margaret Anne — understood to be named after his late mother.

But the firebrand MP missed the birth of his first child due to border closures, and nearly lost his wife April Asuncion in the process due to a complicated birth.

George Christensen with his daughter Margaret and wife April. Picture: Supplied

Mr Christensen revealed his schedule in early 2020 involved visiting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a London prison, before heading to Canberra for parliament and back to his North Queensland electorate — all while his wife was visiting family overseas.

And the pair’s plan to reunite in April was scuttled when Covid-19 emerged, sparking the closure of Australia’s borders in March 2020.

“We thought the borders would only be shut a while, but it went on and on and on,” Mr Christensen said.

“To cut a long story short, my daughter was born overseas in July 2020, without me there for it.

“Worst still, there were complications for my wife.”

He revealed his wife April had to have an emergency caesarean, before suffering “severe internal bleeding”.

“At 4am, the surgeon attending to my wife phoned me to say the situation was very serious and that if there were things I had to tell my wife now was the time to do so,” Mr Christensen said.

“You don’t get a clearer, more sobering message from a doctor than that.”

Baby Margaret Anne Christensen in July 2020.

Ms Asuncion was rushed to emergency surgery, and Mr Christensen — all while unsure if his wife was dead or alive — attended a meeting of local farmers and held a press conference with other MPs.

“Thankfully, she was (OK) and the surgeons there saved her life,” he said.

“On that note I am thankful for Senator (and Foreign Affairs Minister) Marise Payne for what she did to get info via our embassy to the hospital and vice versa.”

Mr Christensen, who choked up while delivering the section of his speech about his family, said he was eventually reunited with his family though he did not “pull rank” to make it happen.

He also used his final speech to parliament to express disdain of the current political climate while underlining his long-held — and controversial — views on abortion, “wokeism”, reforming the ABC, and vaccine mandates among others.

Mr Christensen said he was told when he first arrived in parliament there were two paths, that of the “political poodle” — who “get the accolades and end up sniffing the ministerial leather up close” but don’t spark change — or the “political mongrel”.

He explained that political mongrels “might be mangy, and might growl when grumpy” but would always fight for what they believed in and “bring about change”.

“For my electorate and my people, I’ve proudly been a political mongrel,” he said.

Mr Christensen thanked colleagues across the political spectrum, including crossbench MPs before doing an eerily accurate impression of Kennedy MP Bob Katter.

“Some of you might think it’s a bit weird to thank people from other parties … but I’ve always got on with all of them,” he said.

“As Bob (Katter) says … ‘may a thousand blossoms bloom’.”

George Christensen's daughter Margaret is now 20 months old. Picture: Supplied

Mr Christensen announced his decision to retire from federal politics at the next election in April last year, in part to spend more time with his family.

At the time he also slammed Australia’s “broken” politics, which he said was “dominated by an activist mainstream media along with other leftists cultural institutions that are just so disconnected from the public”

He has represented the Mackay-based seat of Dawson, which extends to the southern banks of the Ross River in Townsville, since 2010. He spent six years in local government prior to that.

The son of third-generation cane growers, Mr Christensen has been a vocal critic of his own government, at times making threats to cross the floor of parliament.

A divisive figure, Mr Christensen courted controversy the moment he was elected, after it was revealed he had failed to resign from his position on Mackay Regional Council before polling day.

Mr Christensen has been vocal about his anti-abortion views, is a supporter of former US President Donald Trump, and frames himself as a strident Christian. He abstained on the vote to legalise same sex marriage.

The Australian Federal Police has investigated him twice — in 2018 for a Facebook photo of himself holding a firearm captioned “do you feel lucky, greenie punks” and again that year for transferring large sums of money overseas — and inquired into his frequent travel to the Philippines.

The AFP did not take action against him for the gun post, found no crime committed for the money transfers and the case into his travel was closed, although authorities warned he was an ongoing risk of being compromised.

George Christensen with his daughter Margaret. Picture: Supplied

Despite the scandal involving his travel to the Philippines which earned him the “Member for Manila” moniker, Mr Christensen was re-elected during the 2019 election with an 11.2 per cent two-party preferred swing — aided mainly by One Nation voters.

The margin in Dawson grew from 3.37 per cent in 2016 to 14.6 per cent in 2019.

Originally published as How George Christensen missed daughter’s birth and almost lost his wife