Deborah Kay Frecklington (born 3 September 1971) is an Australian politician who is the member of the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly ...

for

Nanango Nanango is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Nanango had a population of 3,599 people. Geography Nanango is situated north-west of the state capital, Brisbane, at the j ...

, having won the seat at the 2012 state election. She was the Leader of the Queensland Opposition and leader of the

Liberal National Party of Queensland The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a major political party in Queensland, Australia. It was formed in 2008 by a merger of the Queensland divisions of the Liberal Party and the National Party. At a federal level and in most other ...

(LNP) before resigning as party leader following the LNP’s loss at the

2020 Queensland state election The 2020 Queensland state election was held on 31 October to elect all 93 members to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The Labor Party was returned to government for a third-term, led by incumbent premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. With 47 ...

Early life

Frecklington was born in

Miles The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 Engli ...

in south-west Queensland. She grew up on a cattle property at Guluguba and attended Guluguba State School. For her secondary schooling, she was a boarder at

Ipswich Girls' Grammar School , motto_translation = Diligence Overcomes All , established = 1892 , type = Independent, day & boarding , gender = Girls , denomination = Non-denominational , slogan = , principal = Peter Britton , key_people = , chai ...

. Frecklington has a Bachelor of Business (University of Southern Queensland) and a Bachelor of Law (Queensland University of Technology). She has worked in the clothing, motor vehicle and newspaper industries. Her career takes in the co-management of broad-acre cropping properties with her husband. During her time as a lawyer, she worked for Kelly & Frecklington Solicitors, specialising in family and property law.

Politics

Frecklington was appointed Assistant Minister for Finance, Administration and Regulatory Reform on 3 April 2012 and subsequently appointed to the role of Assistant Minister to the Premier in June 2014. Following the LNP's defeat in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

, she was appointed to the LNP front bench as Shadow Minister for Agriculture. In 2016, she was elected unopposed as deputy leader of the LNP—and hence Deputy Leader of the Opposition—after

Tim Nicholls Timothy James Nicholls (born 6 April 1965) is an Australian politician and a former leader of the Liberal National Party of Queensland. He served as the Treasurer of Queensland and the Minister for Trade of that state between March/April 2012 ...

ousted

Lawrence Springborg Lawrence James Springborg (born 17 February 1968) is an Australian politician. He led the National Party in the Queensland Parliament from 2003 to 2006 and again in 2008, before becoming the first leader of the merged Liberal National Party ...

as leader.

Leader of the LNP

After Nicholls led the party to a loss at the 2017 state election, Frecklington was elected the leader of the LNP at a party-room meeting on 12 December 2017. Frecklington secured 25 votes out of a possible 39 in the first round of voting. Former leader

John-Paul Langbroek John-Paul Honoré Langbroek (born 31 January 1961) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland representing the centre-right Liberal Party and its successor, the centre-right Liberal National Part ...

received 10 votes while outsider Mark Robinson received three votes, and there was one informal vote. Frecklington became only the second female Queensland Opposition Leader in history, and the first woman to lead the non-Labor side in Queensland. She is also the second LNP leader from a long-held National seat; Nanango was the seat of former long-serving National Premier

Joh Bjelke-Petersen Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (13 January 191123 April 2005), known as Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was a conservative Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, during ...

, who held it and its successor seat, Barambah, from 1947 to 1987. Frecklington took the LNP into the

. The LNP was heavily defeated, suffering a five-seat swing and winning only five seats in Brisbane. Frecklington initially indicated she would stay on as leader, but on 2 November announced she would call a

leadership spill In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply spill) is a colloquialism referring to a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions (l ...

which she would not contest. On 12 November,

David Crisafulli David Frank Crisafulli (born 14 April 1979) is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 2017, representing the Gold Coast-based electorate of Broadwater for the Liberal National Party. He was ...

was elected leader. Soon afterward, Frecklington became Shadow Minister for Water and Shadow Minister for Regional Development in Crisafulli's shadow cabinet. She is one of the few state politicians in Australia to have never spent a day on the backbench, having spent her entire career as a junior minister (2012-2015), shadow minister (2015-2016, 2020-present), deputy opposition leader (2016-2017) and opposition leader (2017-2020).

Community interests

Frecklington is a member of: * The South Burnett Suicide Prevention Group * Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce * Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise * South Burnett Law Association

Personal life

Frecklington lives with her husband and three children in

Kingaroy Kingaroy is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is situated on the junction of the D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highways, north-west of the state capital Brisbane and south west of Gympie. As a ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Frecklington, Deb 1971 births Living people Liberal National Party of Queensland politicians Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Australian solicitors Women members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Women deputy opposition leaders Deputy opposition leaders