Annastacia Palaszczuk

Honourable

Born
25 July 1969
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Occupation
Lawyer, Parliamentarian and Political advisor
Jurisdiction

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Annastacia Palaszczuk was elected to the Parliament of Queensland as Member for Inala in 2006. She was re-elected in 2009, 2012 and 2015. She was a minister in the Bligh government, but was elected Leader of the Opposition in March 2012 after the landslide defeat of the Labor Government. In January 2015 Annastacia Palaszczuk led the Labor Party to an unexpected victory and became the first woman to take a party from opposition into government when she became Premier on 14 February 2015.

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 as she stood for the seat of Inala, on his retirement.

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.

Sources used to compile this entry: King, Madonna, Annastacia Palaszczuk: Queensland's accidental premier, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 April 2015; https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/members/current/list/MemberDetails?ID=2980517905.

Prepared by Rosemary Francis