senator Susan McDonald Contact information

Susan Eileen McDonald is an Australian politician who has been serving as a Senator for Queensland since 2019. She belongs to the Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) and is a member of the National Party in the federal parliament. Born on 7 February 1970 in Brisbane, McDonald grew up on Devoncourt Station, located in the locality of Kuridala outside of Cloncurry. She received her schooling through the School of the Air based in Mount Isa before completing her education with Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Economics degrees from the University of Queensland.

McDonald is a chartered accountant by profession and has a background in agribusiness. From 2014 to 2019, she served as the managing director of Super Butcher, a subsidiary of her family business MDH, which had five stores and employed 80 people as of 2016. McDonald was appointed to the board of Beef Australia in 2016 and joined the council of the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland in the same year.

McDonald joined the National Party of Queensland when she was 19 years old and served a term as state secretary beginning in 2003. When the party merged with the state Liberal Party in 2008, she became a founding trustee of the new LNP. From 2012 to 2015, she served as the chief of staff to Andrew Cripps, the Queensland Minister for Natural Resources and Mines.

McDonald won LNP preselection for the Senate in July 2018 and was elected to parliament at the 2019 federal election, to a term beginning on 1 July 2019. She sits in the Nationals partyroom and serves on several Senate committees. McDonald is the chair of the rural and regional affairs and transport legislation committee. She reportedly voted for Barnaby Joyce in the 2021 Nationals leadership spill, despite having previously supported Michael McCormack. She was subsequently appointed as the Morrison Government’s Special Envoy for Northern Australia, a non-ministerial position.

During her time in the Senate in 2021, McDonald supported an inquiry into vegan food labeling. Following the Coalition’s defeat at the 2022 federal election, McDonald was appointed to new opposition leader Peter Dutton’s shadow ministry, with responsibility for the resources and Northern Australia portfolios.

McDonald advocates for the agricultural development of inland Australia and supports the assumptions of the Bradfield Scheme. She endorses the construction of the Hell’s Gate Dam on the upper Burdekin River as well as the expansion of the existing Burdekin Dam. In March 2019, The Australian described her as “avowedly pro-coal.” McDonald is a single mother to three children and moved to Townsville after her election to parliament, having previously lived in the Brisbane suburb of Clayfield. She was diagnosed with COVID-19 in March 2020, which she described as a mild case.