QLD:LNP eyes Sir Joh's old stamping ground

AAP General News (Australia)
04-15-2011
QLD:LNP eyes Sir Joh's old stamping ground

BRISBANE, April 15 AAP - Queensland's opposition Liberal National Party is eyeing a
comeback in the conservative heartland seat of Nanango, being vacated by independent MP
Dorothy Pratt.

Ms Pratt has announced she will not be standing for Nanango at the next state election.

LNP leader Campbell Newman said the party had already preselected Deborah Frecklington
to contest the seat.

"She's a terrific young woman, she's a lawyer, she's been active in the community and
she'd be part of a strong united team," Mr Newman told reporters in Brisbane on Friday.

Nanango would be a special prize for the LNP.

The seat was created from the old electorate of Barambah, best known as the stronghold
of conservative stalwart premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen

Sir Joh was Country Party and National Party premier of Queensland from 1968 to 1987.

The seat is a must-win for the LNP if it wants to take power in the next election due
in March 2012, but Ms Pratt said she hoped it would be held by another independent.

Ms Pratt was first elected to state parliament for Barambah as a member of Pauline
Hanson's One Nation Party in 1998.

That seat was later abolished and swallowed up by Nanango, which Ms Pratt won as an
independent after leaving One Nation in 1999.

She was re-elected in 2004, 2006 and 2009.

Ms Pratt is disillusioned by the political system.

"I had such faith in democracy as they say, but I am now under no illusion as to the
fact we don't have it in Queensland and we don't have anyone who really wants to ensure
that we do in the future," she told ABC Radio.

AAP ka/jl/jlw

KEYWORD: PRATT WRAP

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