Michelle Landry, the five-term member for Capricornia, will not contest the seat at the next federal election. Nationals leader Senator Matt Canavan has not ruled out a move to the lower house to contest it.
Landry announced her decision on the afternoon of Friday 23 October, ABC News reported. She has held the seat since 2013, when she won the former Labor stronghold with a 4.5 per cent swing, and served in several assistant minister roles under Scott Morrison. She will stay on as the member until the election.
“At some stage you’ve got to take care of yourself and I thought, ‘Now’s the time to do it,'” Landry said, according to the ABC.
She also said: “I certainly wasn’t pushed out by anyone.”
Canavan Keeps His Options Open
At a press conference with Landry, Canavan shrugged off questions about his plans but did not rule out a run, The Guardian reported. Landry denied being pushed, the paper said.
“At some point in the future the LNP will have to preselect a candidate for Capricornia,” Canavan said, ABC News reported. “We’ll make announcements to that in due course.”
Canavan did not confirm that he would seek preselection. Landry’s retirement leaves the LNP to choose a new candidate for a seat it has held for five terms.
The LNP is the Liberal National Party of Queensland, whose federal MPs sit with either the Liberals or the Nationals. Preselection is the process by which a party chooses its candidate for a seat, so any move by Canavan would go through it.
Canavan said of Landry: “She’s been the glue that’s held our party together.”
Earlier in October, Canavan told Sky News he would do “whatever it takes” to hold Capricornia, The Guardian reported.
Coalition leader Angus Taylor declined to speculate, calling Canavan an “extraordinary colleague”, according to The Guardian. Taylor leads a Coalition that has been tested before, including when cracks opened between the partners in May 2025.
A Large Regional Seat
Capricornia covers about 90,000 square kilometres, taking in Rockhampton, the Capricorn Coast, areas near Mackay and parts of the Bowen Basin, ABC News reported.
Senators are elected across a whole state, while a member of the House of Representatives is elected by a single electorate such as Capricornia.
One Nation in the Frame
Redbridge director Kos Samaras said Canavan faced losing his Senate seat in 2028 on current polling showing a One Nation surge, The Guardian reported.
“He goes from a 0% chance of being elected as a senator, to potentially winning [in Capricornia],” Samaras said.
His point was that a lower house seat could keep Canavan in parliament in a way the Senate, on those numbers, might not.
The Guardian Essential poll published in September had One Nation on a 25% primary vote nationally, with Labor on 29% and the Coalition at an all-time low of 22%, The Guardian reported. That put One Nation four points behind Labor and three ahead of the Coalition. A primary vote is the share of first preferences a party receives before preferences are distributed.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said earlier in 2026 that she was looking at opening an electorate office in Yeppoon, on the Capricorn Coast, ABC News reported.
“I think they need to pull their heads in,” Landry said of One Nation, according to The Guardian.
More federal politics is in Buzzline’s Politics section.
Sources: ABC News, “Capricornia MP Michelle Landry announces retirement as Matt Canavan eyes lower house move”, 23 October 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-23/michelle-landry-capricornia-retirement/107300492); The Guardian, “Nationals leader Matt Canavan eyes move to lower house as pollster warns of One Nation wipeout”, 23 October 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/23/nationals-leader-matt-canavan-lower-house-capricornia-one-nation-ntwnfb)
Photo: RegionalQueenslander, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Michelle Landry watches Rockhampton’s Anzac Day parade on Quay Street in April 2022.
