Former Queensland Agriculture Minister John McVeigh has been preselected as the LNP’s candidate in the federal seat of Groom.
The Toowoomba South MP will take over from Ian Macfarlane, who announced in February he was retiring from federal politics after 18 years.
Mr McVeigh was preselected over David van Gend, a local doctor, on Saturday and his attempt to switch to federal politics will spark a by-election in Queensland.
“The vacancy was a surprise to all of us, none of us would have predicted that Ian Macfarlane would step down,” Mr McVeigh told media.
“I had a wide cross section of the community asking me to put my name forward.”
Mr McVeigh has represented Toowoomba South since 2012 and currently serves as the opposition’s Science, Information Technology and Innovation spokesman.
Toowoomba South is considered a safe LNP seat, and Groom is also considered a safe conservative electorate.
If successful, Mr McVeigh would sit in a seat once held by his father, Tom, for 12 years in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mr Macfarlane’s departure comes alongside the retirement of other long-serving Coalition former cabinet ministers, including Warren Truss, Philip Ruddock, Andrew Robb and Bruce Billson.
