Groom federal election 2025: Early polling centres for Toowoomba revealed as candidates make pitch to voters

Groom’s eight federal candidates have made their policy pitches to the thousands of early voters. Here’s everything you need to know about early polling:

Tom Gillespie

5 min read

April 22, 2025 - 6:00AM

Toowoomba Chronicle

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Groom’s eight federal candidates have made their policy pitches to the thousands of early voters, with election officials preparing for a massive surge in people hitting Toowoomba booths.

The Australian Electoral Commission will have at least four of five early voting centres across Toowoomba and Highfields open from Tuesday, in a clear response to the changes in voting preferences among the electorate.

It means candidates have even less time than the five weeks to make their best case to voters.

Here’s everything you need to know:

The pitches

News Corp offered all eight candidates a chance to make a three-point pitch to early voters.

Here they are, in ballot order:

Suzie Holt (Independent)

Suzie Holt will run as an independent for the federal seat of Groom.

• Secure a fair share for the regions of federal funding to deliver critical infrastructure like headworks for housing developments, Inland Rail through Toowoomba, passenger rail to Brisbane, the original expanded Toowoomba Hospital, a fully funded regional university, and the Cressbrook Dam upgrade

• Alleviate the cost of living crisis by pursing tax reform to reduce the burden on small businesses by raising the income asset write-off to 150,000, streamlining compliance requirements, and ease pressure on income earners by ending bracket creep

• Tackle the largest violent crime crisis faced in the region, domestic, family and sexual violence, by calling for national domestic violence bail laws, funding safe housing and long-term support, investing in early prevention and education and delivering trauma-informed services to reduce the main driver of youth crime

Rebecca Konz (One Nation)

Pauline Hanson's One Nation candidate for Groom Rebecca Konz.

• Put more money back in the pockets of the residents of Groom by reducing excise on fuel by 26c/L, reducing tax for families by allowing income combining, and reducing electricity prices by 20 per cent;

• Increase the availability of housing in Groom by taking GST off building products (for houses up to $1m) for 3 years (reviewed after 12 months) removing red and green tape and reversing the legislation requiring all new houses to be built wheelchair compliant and by reducing immigration until all Australians who need a home have a home, and requiring all foreign owned property to be sold to Australians in the next 2 years.

• To protect our local farms by preventing purchase by foreign investors and preventing large scale solar being placed on our precious farmland and making sure the big supermarkets are paying a fair price for produce.

Alex Todd (Family First)

Alexandra Todd, 2025 Family First candidate for Groom. Picture: Supplied

• Lower power prices, the rise in the cost of everything is due to electricity prices rising, the uncosted rush to subsidise renewables with taxpayer funds has been supported by both the major parties and needs to stop. The financial pressure this has caused is being felt by every family in every electorate.

• Gender Ideology must be removed from child care centres, schools, pools and public libraries. Men are men, women are women. Women and girls sport and spaces need to be protected from biological males across the electorate and across the nation. This is a local issue, Milne Bay allows biological men to use the women’s open plan change room.

• Freedom for faith-based schools, businesses and institutions to employ people who share the values of the employer. Parents should be confident that when they choose an independent school it will promote the values that the school was founded on.

Alyce Nelligan (Greens)

Disability advocate and Green candidate Alyce Nelligan. Picture: Social media

• With your help we can make the billionaires pay their fair share of tax and get dental, mental health and ADHD + Autism diagnosis into Medicare. We will make visit to the GP free and build an NDIS that works for disabled people.

• I am committed to fixing the housing crisis by ending the unlimited rent increases and ending the tax handouts for wealthy property investors. We will establish a public developer and ensure every Australian can afford to rent or buy.

• A vote me for me is also a vote to protect our precious farmland here in Groom and tackle the climate crisis. We must protect our farmland, soil and water.

Garth Hamilton (LNP)

LNP's Groom MP Garth Hamilton.

• Immediate cost of living relief – a fuel excise cut and low-to-middle income tax offset

• Let’s restore the dream of home ownership, by easing demand and boosting supply to help first time buyers get into the market

• I’ll deliver on my local plan for Groom, with commitments for Toowoomba Hockey, LifeFlight, the Toowoomba Speedway, The Lighthouse and the Black Gully reserve.

Kirstie Smolenski (Independent)

Groom federal election independent candidate Kirstie Smolenski.

• Increasing Our Housing Supply: A regional housing infrastructure fund would unlock land for building by upgrading essential services and provide grants to local councils and ensure that a portion of the funding went to regional areas.

• Passenger Rail to Toowoomba: The best option is to use the proposed Inland Rail infrastructure from Gowrie to Calvert and then connect it to the existing rail infrastructure.

Passenger rail is a big winner in terms of accessibility and community safety. This project also provides opportunities to upgrade accessibility at key stations across the route.

• Electoral Donation Reform: I am the only candidate to refuse donations from corporations/lobbyists and to cap personal donations. I believe we need to ban all donations from corporations and lobbyists. Alcohol and gambling companies/lobbyists donated almost $2.5 million to political parties in 2023-2024. This is the reason why most politicians don’t dare to ban gambling ads for kids.

Jamie Marr (Trumpet of Patriots)

Trumpet of Patriots Groom candidate Jamie Marr.

• Department Of Government Efficiency: The federal government is bloated and wasteful. Unelected, overpaid bureaucrats must not be allowed to push their personal ideologies on the Australian people. We will launch an investigation and drain the swamp.

• Our values, way of life and Aussie spirit is being eroded. One population under one Australian flag – having multiple flags divides the country. We believe in a multiracial country with only one culture – the Australian culture.

• We must process our minerals at home. Relax the legislative, regulatory and taxation burden on business, so that they can compete and stay in Australia rather than going offshore, such as the auto industry, we once made cars in Australia.

Richard Edwards (Labor)

Labor's candidate for Groom in 2025 Richard Edwards.

• Help Australians with the cost of living with another $150 off your power bills, more tax cuts for every taxpayer and cutting all HECS debt by 20 per cent.

• Strengthen Medicare with the biggest investment in bulk billing ever so all Australians can see a doctor for free.

• In Groom, we’re pledging $1.8m for the Black Gully Linear reserve and Captain Cook reserve upgrade, and $1m for road safety upgrades as part of the Black Spots program.