LNP candidates for Kennedy and Leichhardt launch campaigns

Leader of The Nationals, David Littleproud, and Shadow Minister for Northern Australia, Senator Susan McDonald, have launched the campaigns of LNP candidate for Leichhardt, Jeremy Neal, and LNP candidate for Kennedy, Annette Swaine.

Mr Littleproud said Jeremy Neal and Annette Swaine would be assets for their communities, with Jeremy working as a paramedic and Annette previously working as a police officer and small business owner.

“I’m proud to support Jeremy Neal and Annette Swaine to ensure the LNP has the best possible chance of winning the seats of Kennedy and Leichhardt,” Mr Littleproud said.

“Australians can’t afford another three years of Labor.

“Jeremy and Annette are locals and know the on-the-ground pressures families and businesses are facing. Only our committed local projects can be delivered under a future Dutton/Littleproud LNP Government.”

The LNP has so far pledged an $87.5 million Cairns Water Security Project, an Urgent Care Clinic for Cairns Northern Beaches, sporting infrastructure upgrades to Cairns Hockey and Endeavour Park Football, relocating the Cowboys NRLW to Cairns, upgrading Muddy’s playground on the Cairns Esplanade and ensuring grassroots groups like the Cairns Men’s Shed has a new carpark for safety of their members.

The LNP will also restore the 80/20 Bruce Highway funding model, which Labor previously scrapped as part of its decision to cut $488 million for the highway.

Jeremy Neal said his extensive travel through Cape York and his daily interactions with voters in Cairns had shown Labor’s cost-of-living crisis was having major impacts and the community deserved better.

“I’m proud of our commitment to provide funding to the Cairns Water Supply Project and its $600 million Agriculture and Mining Roads Program, which will make a difference in the Cape,” Mr Neal said.

“No one has escaped the Albanese Labor Government’s cost-of-living crisis and it will only get worse if Labor gets another term.”

Mrs Swaine said the community had been crying out for help in the Kennedy electorate for decades, but no one has delivered.

“I am determined to help families and deliver real solutions,” Mrs Swaine said.

“Over the nearly three decades I have lived and worked in Kennedy, I have heard the same complaints, seen the same problems go unsolved and listened to the same excuses for why the region isn’t powering ahead. This is something I am determined to change and that is why I am running.

“Under the LNP, small businesses will get a permanent $30,000 instant asset write-off. The only way to get an instant asset write off for good is to elect a Liberal National Government.”

Senator McDonald said Northern Australia was being treated like an afterthought under Labor.

“Daily I hear complaints from people in Northern Australia - where’s the Prime Minister? Where’s the Minister?” Senator McDonald said.

“The LNP has a proven record of prioritising the lives and livelihoods of people in our North, and I am excited at the prospect of having Jeremy and Annette in a Liberal National Government.

“Having three elected representatives for Cairns and Far North Queensland will be a powerful team in Canberra, to ensure our region receives the attention it deserves in business, mining, tourism and transformational infrastructure.”