The LNP may struggle to win the election if opinion polls are to be believed, but it is likely they will elect a strong voice for North West Queensland in the Senate.
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Cloncurry-born Susan McDonald - daughter of well-known locals Don and Chris McDonald - is number two on the LNP Queensland Senate ticket and she is raking up the kilometres across regional and rural Queensland in the run up to the May 18 election.
"What's not to love?" Ms McDonald said.
"I'm getting around and talking to people about the issues I'm most passionate about, that's getting services and people back out to regional Queensland."
One of those services is obstetrics in smaller towns.
"One of the things that really bother me is that we have lost the ability in many regional communities in Queensland for women to be able to have their babies in the local community," she said.
"We know this is so important, not just for the practicalities of getting away from work and organising other children but to get away from your support networks in your home town."
Ms McDonald said the rural GP association had lobbied the federal government for funding to enhance the GP training program, which the government has approved in a five year $63m program.
"What they's asked for is to provide additional specialist training for obstetrics and for anaesthetics so that if you're having a planned birth and it's not high risk, in the majority of cases you'll be able to have your baby in your community with a well-trained professional," she said.
"This is groundbreaking stuff and of course only when you have a strong economy are you able to have a government put money back into this kind of services and training."
Ms McDonald said it would mean that doctors who have gone through this program could deliver babies in the likes of Cloncurry and Burketown, rather than Mount Isa.
Beyond rural health, Ms McDonald said regional people were concerned about the "disconnect" with the big cities.
"This idea that growing food and mining are in some ways bad things to do is troubling," she said.
"For those of us who live in regional Queensland we know these are industries that are really well managed with strong environmental and economic plans and (they are) what brings people to these communities."
Ms McDonald also threw her support behind the North West Queensland mayors' six point plan.
"One of the challenges for federal politicians is that if one mayor comes with a proposal and then the mayor comes with a different proposal it makes it difficult to prioritise," she said.
"When the mayors get together they are able to present a prioritised list of what needs to happen for regional Queensland, so it's a great initiative and it makes it easy for the federal government to make decisions."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
