Christopher Testa

1 week ago | abc.net.au | Christopher Testa |Conor Byrne

In some parts of Far North Queensland, paying $3 a litre for fuel – twice as much as other Queenslanders – is just a fact of life. The electorate of Leichhardt spans 150,000 square kilometres and stretches from suburban Cairns, all the way through Cape York to the Torres Strait. Live: Albanese and Dutton both in PerthThe median weekly income is $200 less than the average Australian and locals say the cost of living is only becoming harder to bear.

2 weeks ago | abc.net.au | Conor Byrne |Christopher Testa

Leichhardt is Australia's 10th largest seat, larger than Greece. It's the only seat with an international border. Far north Queensland can suffer bushfires and cyclones — in the same day. The populations include the metropolitan tourist mecca of Cairns to impoverished remote Aboriginal communities. This seat is about to be vacated by incumbent LNP stalwart Warren Entsch. But both of the major parties think they have a shot. Conor Byrne reports.

2 weeks ago | abc.net.au | Christopher Testa |Sophie Mcmanus

The PM arrives in the far north promising half the funds for a $490 million replacement bridge over the Barron River near Cairns. Locals say the funding is needed but governments should consider a new highway over the mountain range to the Atherton Tablelands. Neither side of politics has committed to investigating an alternative route over the Kuranda Range.

3 weeks ago | abc.net.au | Christopher Testa

A program aimed at protecting some of Australia's oldest tropical rainforest from one of the world's worst invasive ant species is due to run out of federal funding next year. The yellow crazy ant eradication program around the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, near Cairns, has been described as one of the most successful of its kind in the world.

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Christopher Testa

A jury in the murder trial of Rajwinder Singh, charged with killing Cairns woman Toyah Cordingley, has been discharged after it was unable to reach a verdict. Mr Singh, 40, pleaded not guilty at the Supreme Court in Cairns to the 24-year-old's murder. The jury entered its third day of deliberations this morning, but just after 12pm, jurors issued a note to Justice James Henry, advising they were still deadlocked and had no further questions or evidence to consider.