Nationals leader Matt Canavan will run for a Queensland lower house seat at the next federal election, following the retirement of Capricornia MP Michelle Landry. The move could put him in a contest with James Ashby, Pauline Hanson’s national director, in a significant battle for regional seats.
Canavan told the Courier-Mail the seat needed to be retained to change the government. “The issue is we need to keep this seat to change the government, and I want us to continue to deliver for central Queensland,” he said. He also said he was “not going to die wondering” about the bid, adding that he would “give it my all.”
Landry, who is based in Rockhampton, announced last month that she would retire from politics and not recontest her seat at the next election. The report said Canavan had previously been tipped to make a bid for the House of Representatives amid warnings from pollsters that he had a “zero per cent” chance of holding his Senate spot if One Nation maintained its surge in opinion polls.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said One Nation should not be fighting for Coalition-held seats if it was serious about taking on Labor. She told Nine’s Today show that One Nation needed to start running in Labor party seats instead of against someone like Canavan, and said she was not afraid of a fight.
Sources: The Guardian World.