Richardson, who won on the primary vote in the last State election, but preferences from the Greens favoured Labor's Steve Wettenhall, said it was a "very difficult decision."
“I have been very committed to providing honest, decent and hard-working representation in government, and I still have great faith that this can be achieved by the right individuals,” Wendy Richardson said. “However, my partner has new work opportunities away from Cairns for a while, and family rightly comes first in these considerations."
Richardson, who still has a working farm on the Atherton Tablelands, will continue to undertake her speech pathology services in the Far North.
“The well-being of the people of my home town of Cairns and its beautiful surrounding region will always be very important to me, and I will stay involved politically, though from the sidelines for the time being,” Richardson says. “I am very happy to see other worthy candidates running in the region and wish them well in maintaining their resolve to fight for the best for the electorate and the region.”
“Standing for election is far harder than most people imagine; it requires massive personal input of time, energy, resilience, and financial resources in order to even have a chance. But most of all, I believe it requires strength of character to withstand the public’s understandable skepticism about anyone putting their hand up for election.”
“I would like to see the public rally behind good candidates, helping them to maintain their integrity, not demeaning them before they even start," she said today. "However, I’m sure others feel too that it is high time for politicians and parties everywhere to lift their game; to do what they were elected to do – simply, properly and effectively.”
“Politics should be about a contest of ideas, not the contest of personalities we currently see.”
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