Annastacia Palaszczuk could survive a crisis of confidence in her leadership and even become Queensland’s longest-serving prime minister since World War II as a result of little-known partisan rule.
After more than eight years in power, speculation is mounting that her ambitious deputy Steven Miles could replace her before the next election, which is in October 2024.
Her final two-week trip to Europe – her second overseas vacation this year – comes despite poor polls, a surge in juvenile delinquency and a cost-of-living crisis.
But Queensland Senator Anthony Chisholm, who was Labor secretary of state when new rules were introduced nearly a decade ago, said Palaszczuk was likely to overtake Peter Beattie next year to become Labor’s longest-serving prime minister since 1942.
“The next election is still over 12 months away, that’s something she’ll be ticking off along the way,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“But honestly, I don’t think it’s something she’s focused on.
‘People have a right to vacation.’
But the Brisbane-based senator admitted juvenile delinquency was a political challenge.
“It is a difficult issue for the government to deal with, but I am confident that they will take the right steps,” he said.
Annastacia Palaszczuk could survive a crisis of confidence in her leadership and even become Queensland’s longest-serving Prime Minister since World War II as a result of little-known party rule (she is pictured right with her surgeon boyfriend Dr Reza Adib)
Under Labor Party rules introduced in 2014, a leadership leak requires the support of 50 per cent of MPs.
There would then be a postal vote between MPs, party members and trade unions, with each given equal weighting.
Despite this, Senator Chisholm said no Queensland Labor prime minister has been impeached in a party vote in living memory.
“We have a strong history of supporting our leaders,” he said.
“I am confident that the party is behind Annastacia and it is not uncommon for us to go through some difficult moments as a government in the medium term, but I am confident that they can work it out on the other side.”
Robert Schwarten, a former ministerial college of Ms Palaszczuk in Rockhampton, suggested that anonymous rank and file who wanted a promotion opposed Labour.
“They will lose the election if they keep doing what they’re doing and hiding behind some kind of anonymity and don’t have the guts to raise their hands,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“That’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
A Resolve poll for The Brisbane Times showed the Opposition Liberal National Party leading Labour 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent, after preferences.
LNP leader David Crisafulli was also favored as prime minister, with 37 percent support, compared to 36 percent for Ms Palaszczuk, Australia’s only female prime minister to win three elections.
Ms Palaszczuk took over as Labor leader in 2012 following the landslide defeat of Anna Bligh as prime minister, leaving the ALP with just seven seats in an 89-seat parliament.
But in less than three years she took Labor back to power after her Liberal Party predecessor Campbell Newman alienated civil servants, lawyers and doctors.
Labor under her was re-elected in 2017 and 2020, with Queensland’s border closure due to the pandemic helping the country win normally LNP-entitled retiree seats, including Caloundra and Nicklin on the Sunshine Coast, along with Hervey Bay and Pumicestone covering Bribie Island , north of Brisbane.
While Ms Palaszczuk comes from the right-wing faction, the left has controlled the party conference since 2014 when it was still in the opposition, making Dr Miles the main contender from the left to become the next prime minister.
“I don’t think it’s really helpful to speculate about something like that,” Senator Chisholm said.
“I see Annastacia regularly at events and I get the sense that she is hungry and determined and hard working, just like she was on the first day she was elected.”
After more than eight years in power, speculation is mounting that her ambitious deputy Steven Miles could replace her before the next election, which is in October 2024.
If Ms Palaszczuk lasts until April 2024, she will overtake Mr Beattie’s nine years and two months with three electoral victories to her name.
Her former boss, like her, won against the opposition in 1998, but he also triumphed in four elections, with subsequent victories in 2001, 2004 and 2006 in the era before Queensland’s four-year term.
Overtaking him would make her the longest-serving Queensland Labor prime minister since William Forgan Smith’s decade to 1942.
That would also make her Queensland’s fourth longest-serving Prime Minister, behind National Party leader Joh Bjelke-Petersen, fellow Country Party leader Frank Nicklin and Mr Forgan Smith.