Victoria Stone-Meadows

Warren Entsch has retained his seat in Leichhardt after the federal election results delivered a shock win for the LNP.

With three questers of the votes in Leichhardt counted to date, Mr Entsch has held onto his seat by a 3.6 per cent margin.

Labor Candidate Elida Faith garnered 46.35 per cent of the vote on a two-candidate preferred basis, compared to Mr Entsch’s 53.65 per cent.

Mr Entsch said he thanked Ms Faith for her professionalism during the election campaign.

“Elida has congratulated me on my win and I thanked Elida for not starting any personal attacking,” he said.

“There were no personality attacks and I thanked her for that and I wished her well.”

In the first few hours of vote counting on Saturday, it appeared Labor was off to a good start in Leichhardt but Mr Entsch was confident he would win the seat. 

“I am relieved but it always starts out close in Leichhardt,” he said.

“We knew very early in the peace we were going to win, we thought initially there would be a swing against me, as much as three per cent, but as the votes started to come in the swing was more like .3 per cent.

“We get all the remote booths and pre-polling remote booths, and the small ones out of the cape first and it always looks dire but we did well in Douglas Shire.”

Mr Entsch has held Leichhardt since the 2010 election and said he will stay in the seat through to 2022 if the government stays in for a full three-year term.

“I’m not going to put myself and my staff through an election campaign to just up and retire.

“I’m even more excited now we are in government and determined to push the Daintree microgrid through and nobody, not even a former mayor, will stop me.” 

Since the election, Mr Entsch has also announced a new project to remove more discarded plastics from the oceans and beaches of the Far North.

He said the LNP already do a lot of work concerning environmental protections and he plans to do what he can to improve the environment of Leichhardt.

“I think we get undervalued for the work we are doing, the anti-Adani mob and all of those groups, they just want to get rid of all fossil fuels and are using the reef as a part of a prop to do it,” he said.

“Most of us would like to not use fossil fuels and eventually we will not but until then I’d like to get credit for what we are already doing [for the environment].”

Along with the Daintree power grid, he also said he is “one thousand per cent” committed to the funding for projects he announced recently including $20 million to convert the Mossman Mill to a bio-precinct, $500,000 for Paws and Claws, $8 million for the Wangetti trail and $110,000 for a new boundary fence for the football oval in Port Douglas.