Warren Entsch has announced more than a quarter of a century of representing Leichhardt will come to an end ahead of the 2025 federal election. Photo: Supplied.
After nine election victories, 26 years and countless kilometres travelled around the gargantuan Leichhardt electorate, outspoken MP Warren Entsch has confirmed his time in federal politics is coming to an end.
Mr Entsch will not seek a tenth election win when voters head to the polls in 2025 and said he believed it was time for “a fresh set of eyes” to take on the stewardship of the 150,000 square kilometre seat.
“I’m 74 years old and I’ll be close to 75 by the time the elections been called,” he told Cape York Weekly.
“I don’t want to do a [Joe] Biden-type arrangement; I think it’s time for renewal.
“Time is beating me, but also, I think it’s time for someone to look at it with a fresh set of eyes in a very different environment to what I came into when I started back in 1996.”
It is inarguably a divergent political landscape now compared to the one that confronted Mr Entsch at 11:13am on 20 June 1996, when he rose in the House of Representatives to deliver his maiden speech.
It did not take long for Mr Entsch to speak his mind and gain a reputation as an outspoken advocate for his electorate.
“My arrival in Canberra after 2 March only serves to highlight to me the inadequacies of the services in Leichhardt,” he told Parliament during his first speech.
“I stand in awe of the fantastic infrastructure and services available to the lucky citizens of Canberra; coming from a regional electorate, Canberra seems like fairyland; the services provided here are almost beyond the imagination of my constituents.
“It is little wonder the bureaucrats and decision makers, insulated in the comforts of Canberra, lose touch with the harsh realities of regional Australia.”
After being elected in 1996, Mr Entsch stood down ahead of the 2007 federal election to fulfil a promise to his youngest son, before being re-elected in 2010 and maintaining a stranglehold on the electorate ever since.
While the Leichhardt MP had planned to pull stumps ahead of the 2022 election, then-prime minister Scott Morrison convinced him to serve another term.
“I was looking at stepping down in 2022 but nobody stepped up, and I was concerned about that, and the prime minister came to me … and asked me what he could do to make me stay,” Mr Entsch recalled.
He identified improvements with regional mobile phone coverage, the commencement of the Peninsula Developmental Road (PDR) sealing, formal recognition of the efforts of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion and marriage equality as highlights in a career he said he believed “made a difference locally, nationally and internationally”.
“There no was mobile phone coverage at all outside the [Cairns] CBD,” Mr Entsch said.
“The sealed road stopped at Lakeland – there was no sealed road to Cooktown, let alone up to the Cape.
“We were way behind, and so that was the start of my political journey.”
Mr Entsch said he was frustrated with the time taken to deliver major infrastructure projects in Leichhardt, especially on Cape York, but added he had few other political regrets.
“I would have liked to see things done quicker; sometimes, I get frustrated with the timelines,” he said.
“It took me two goes to get the sealing done on the Peninsula Developmental Road; it’s not ideal, but at least we’re progressing.”
Cape York Weekly understands the local Liberal Party branch is currently working through a five-candidate preselection process to determine whose name will replace Mr Entsch’s on the ballot paper in 2025.
“It’s not for me to anoint somebody,” he said.
“This is one area the party has the right to make those choices; I’ll certainly be very vocal who I think is the best person to continue my legacy, but it’s ultimately up to the party.”
As he reflected on his political career, Mr Entsch thanked his staff and offered some key advice for whichever candidate was handed the Leichhardt crown.
“The key to my success, in my view, is my staff – I have the most amazing staff,” he said.
“Be committed to the people, not the party; I respect the party I’m in, and I share their values fundamentally, but at the end of the day, politics is not about the party, it’s about the people.
“Remember the friends that you have when you go into the job and maintain those friendships … because they’re going to be the ones still there when it’s all over.”
Veteran MP Warren Entsch says he believes the key to longevity in politics is remembering it’s “not about the party, it’s about the people”. Photo: Supplied.
