George Christensen announces resignation as Mackay councillor for family reasons

The former federal MP says he's leaving the office "to prioritise my daughter, who may soon need full-time care".

George Christensen has announced he will resign as a member of Mackay Regional Council, one year after his election.

In a statement released on his social media accounts and Substack, Christensen said he's resigning "to prioritise my daughter, who may soon need full-time care".

"I won't be going into details — because this is family, family is private, and family is sacred. So I won't be discussing it in the media or the public domain. But I will say this: there are moments in life when even duty must give way to something greater. I hope people will understand that this is a decision made out of love and necessity, not politics or pressure."

Christensen also stated his his resignation announcement that "councillors are blocked from doing their job by a system that empowers bureaucrats".

"Questioning decisions is treated as disruption, but it's actually democracy in action".

Mackay Regional Council is undivided, meaning it has no wards. However, undivided councils in Queensland use plurality block voting − essentially, multi-member first-past-the-post.

This means that, although Mackay elects ten councillors, a by-election will be held to fill the vacancy caused by Christensen's resignation, instead of a countback or an appointed replacement.

This is, effectively, a first-past-the-post single-member by-election.

A similar situation occurred at the Ipswich City Council Division 4 by-election in October last year. Ipswich has two-member wards with plurality block voting, and the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) confirmed to 6 News at the time that "as there is only one vacancy, voters need to mark only one square on the ballot paper".

The previous Mackay City Council, abolished in 2008, used single-member wards. Christensen represented Division 7 from 2004 until 2008, then served on the new undivided council until his federal election campaign in 2010.

He was the Liberal National member for Dawson until 2022, when he joined One Nation and ran on the party's Queensland Senate ticket in the third position. His campaign at the local elections was part of the "Mackay First" ticket, which won four seats.

Mackay First group leader Steve Jackson narrowly lost to incumbent Greg Williamson in the mayoral contest.

Christensen spoke to 6 News following his election last year, where he was critical of the plurality block voting system and supportive of looking at a return to wards.

His resignation comes into effect at 5pm tomorrow. Details of the by-election will be released by the ECQ in due course.