Warren Entsch to run at next election

Veteran Coalition MP Warren Entsch has reneged on his decision to retire at the next federal election.

Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch has announced that he will run as the Liberal Party candidate at the next federal election. Warren Entsch celebrates the announces with his wife Yolonde Entsch at the Cairns Marlin Marina. Picture: Brendan Radke

Veteran Coalition MP Warren Entsch has reneged on his decision to retire at the next federal election, cruelling Labor’s chances of picking up his far north Queensland electorate.

The outspoken backbencher has held Leichhardt – an enormous seat which stretches from Cairns to the Torres Strait – since 1996, except for three years from 2007 when he first retired.

Labor’s Jim Turnour won in Mr Entsch’s absence but was defeated after one term when the former grazier and crocodile catcher returned to politics. Mr Entsch, 70, had announced on election night in 2019 he would not recontest the next federal election, but said he had changed his mind in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said he had been approached by local tourism and business figures asking him to run again. “I feel it is incumbent on me during these uncertain times to continue to support our community and its residents for as long as it takes along this road.”