The Australian Women's Register

Annastacia Palaszczuk was born on 25 July 1969, in Brisbane, Queensland. She grew up in the Brisbane suburb of Durack and attended Jaboree Heights State School and St Mary’s Catholic College, Ipswich. She graduated from the University of Queensland with degrees in Arts and Law and completed a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice at the Australian National University. She followed that up with a British Council Chevening academic scholarship at London University in 1996.

In 2006 she was admitted to practise as a lawyer two weeks after she was elected to the Queensland Parliament, having made the decision to embark on a parliamentary career to make the laws rather than interpret them. She followed her father, Henry Palaszczuk, into politics by standing for the seat of Inala on his retirement and was re-elected at each election from 2009 to 2020. Having been Leader of the Opposition since March 2012 in January 2015 Annastacia Palaszczuk led the Labor Party to an unexpected victory, becoming the first woman to take a party from opposition into government when she became Premier on 14 February 2015 and she led the first majority female cabinet in Australian federal and state and history. She resigned as Premier in December 2023 and from Parliament later that month. A complete record of her parliamentary service, including a link to her first speech, can be found on the Queensland Parliament site (see link below).

Before entering politics, Palaszczuk worked as a part-time sales assistant, a tutor with the Aboriginal and Island Students Service at the University of Queensland, a tutor at the Australian National University, and as an advisor to federal and state members of parliament and ministers. After leaving parliament she was appointed to the Board of Australia Post in August 2024, and from May 2025 has been an Adjunct Professor in the School of Political Science International Studies at the the University of Queensland. In October 2025 Palaszczuk was elected to the Senate of that university.

In the 2026 Australia Day Honours she was appointed as Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) ‘for eminent service to the people and Parliament of Queensland, particularly as Premier, to educational equity, to multiculturalism, and to public health.’