Massive Leichhardt swing welcomes in Labor's Matt Smith

The electorate of Leichhardt has been swept up in an Australia-wide Labor landslide at the Federal Election on Saturday, with an about 10 per cent swing awarding Cairns-based Matt Smith the seat ahead of main rival Liberal National Party candidate Jeremy Neal.

And in the Senate, Labor’s Nita Green, who is also based in Cairns and has played a big part in promoting Smith during the campaign, has been returned as well.

Smith spoke of his successful campaign while casting his vote on Saturday.

“I’m proud of the campaign we’ve run and the conversations we’ve had with locals across the region,” Smith said.

Voters faced a wet and soggy morning at the Douglas Shire booths on Saturday, May 3, with many volunteers handing out how-to-vote cards from beneath umbrellas.

The good news for voters was there were few lines at the booths, with many seemingly either waiting for a break in the weather or lodging their choice early - about 47 per cent of eligible voters took advantage of prepolling and postal voting, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, up 22 per cent on the previous election.

It is unclear yet how Douglas Shire may directly benefit from the Labor victory, which was comprehensive at both a local and national level.

Smith focussed his election campaign almost wholly in the Cairns region, where about 80 per cent of Leichhardt voters are based, and made no election promises about the Shire area.

Douglas Shire Mayor Lisa Scomazzon petitioned Smith to pledge up to $5m to help build a new $5.7m disaster-relief centre, but he did not do that.

Smith told ABC Radio during the campaign he would “get up there at one point” in relation to visiting our Shire, but he did not do that.

The council has also been lobbying for federal help to build a $6.6m new 10 million litre water tank at Crees Road to help relieve stored water shortages in the region - which voters spoken to by Newsport believe to be a farcical situation considering how much it rains in Douglas Shire.

Smith said in March he would “advocate for anything that is important to the region”, but also went quiet on the water-shortage front.

Labor has also rejected a long-running LNP policy to build an $18.7m Daintree microgrid system, so it is unclear how the issue of how to provide more power to that region will play out.

One positive for Douglas Shire is the Labor promise to build a new Urgent Care Clinic in the Cairns Northern Beaches area.

Many Shire residents unable to get a doctor’s appointment in this area should be able to commute to that centre if needed.