Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced Joel Richters as the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate for the state seat of Southern Downs at the 2020 Queensland election in October.
Mr Richters will contest the seat against sitting LNP MP James Lister who holds the seat – the LNP’s fifth safest in the state – by a margin of just over 13 per cent.
In a statement released earlier today, Wednesday 6 May, Mr Richters – who ran against Mr Lister at the last state election in December 2017 – said he “moved to Goondiwindi in 2014 after serving in the Australian Army for eight years”.
“I am a proud and dedicated healthcare worker at Darling Downs Health, as well as Board Chair of the local disability and community support organisation, Care Goondiwindi,” Mr Richters said.
“I have seen first-hand how access to quality health services has a vital impact on closing the gap on health outcomes between urban and rural Queenslanders.”
Ms Palaszczuk said “Joel has the experience and energy to be a strong voice for his local community”.
“We need local champions like Joel so we can keep delivering more jobs, more industries, better frontline services, and the infrastructure Queensland needs for the future,” the Premier said.
Mr Richters is so far the only candidate to have been announced to go up against James Lister in 2020. Mr Lister was re-endorsed by the LNP as its candidate in late 2019.
Mr Lister told the Free Times he wished to “congratulate Joel on his Labor Party pre-selection and I look forward to the coming election race”.
Also lining up against James Lister at the 2017 state election were Josh Coyne of One Nation and independent Rob Mackenzie.
Mr Mackenzie quit the LNP ahead of the 2017 poll after unsuccessfully seeking endorsement as the party’s candidate for Southern Downs and ran as an independent.
Both Mr Mackenzie – who is currently Deputy Mayor of Goondiwindi Regional Council – and Mr Richters gained 16.2 per cent and 16.89 per cent of the primary vote respectively in 2017, but One Nation’s Josh Coyne finished second to James Lister with 20.39 per cent.
Current Southern Downs Regional Council councillors Cameron Gow and Jo McNally also stood unsuccessfully for pre-selection as the LNP candidate for Southern Downs in the lead-up to the 2017 election.
The 2020 Queensland election is scheduled for Saturday 31 October. It has been speculated it could be a full postal ballot state-wide depending on the COVID-19 situation but this is still undecided.
The 2020-2021 Queensland budget had been due in April but has been delayed thanks to COVID-19 and no timeframe for its delivery has yet been announced by the Premier.As well as the Southern Downs Regional Council area the state seat of Southern Downs also covers the Goondiwindi and Inglewood areas and as far as Talwood and Weengallon to the west, along with Yandilla and Pampas and nearby districts to the north.
