The sign Annastacia Palaszczuk was on her way out: How voters turned against the socialite Queensland premier as she became a fixture of red carpet events with her surgeon boyfriend

She paused in making the shock announcement when Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said “the time was right”, but this does not alter the fact that the timing was not entirely her choice.

Labour's poor polling ahead of next year's election had many pundits and its opponents claiming there was growing dissatisfaction with her nine-year stint as prime minister.

Redbridge opinion polls in August showed Labor heading for defeat, with the LNP leading by a margin of 55 to 45 percent on two-party preference.

This kind of terrible outcome even led to a former minister in the Beattie and Bligh Labor governments, and power broker Robert Schwarten, last week urging current MPs to adopt a 'new model'.

LNP leader David Crisafulli claimed a bitter power struggle had broken out in Labour's ranks.

“What's really disturbing is that the government is fighting against itself and not for the people of Queensland. And that is becoming increasingly clear,” he says.

Deputy LNP leader Jarrod Bleijie even claimed he was aware of confidential information that ALP deputy leader Steven Miles and Health Minister Shannon Fentiman were preparing to oust Ms Palaszczuk.

“You see it in parliament, Labor MPs are speaking to us, they have been leaking against the prime minister for 12 months now,” Bleijie told Sky News.

“It's certainly coming at this stage and we've got Labour's cuts, Labor's chaos and Labour's Christmas coup. That's the reality.'

Ms Palaszczuk's commitment to the job has also become an issue, with some saying she has 'checked out' of the position this year.

In June, she was forced to angrily dismiss claims that she had become a “part-time prime minister” who had spent too much time on the red carpet with celebrities and her surgeon friend Dr Reza Adib.

Insiders claimed that MPs and senior officials had become dissatisfied with her tendency to regularly attend glamorous social events.

Even former Labor leader Peter Beattie urged her to start a new agenda to prove she still wanted to be prime minister.

She also started taking foreign holidays for the first time in her time as prime minister with a three-week trip abroad in January.

This was followed by another trip to Italy in August, leading to the embarrassing figure that by the time she returned she had spent twelve more days on holiday than in Parliament.

Acting Prime Minister Miles even held a Cabinet meeting without her, the first such meeting she had missed six years.

Ms Palaszczuk said at the time she was having 'health problems'.

Despite Palaszczuk's landslide election victory in 2020, which reflected the adoption of her draconian border restrictions during Covid, making her the first woman to win three state elections in Australia, the third term saw the luster wear off.

The scale of the state's housing and cost of living crisis was highlighted this week by images of the tent city stretching along the Brisbane River in the inner-city suburb of South Brisbane.

Health care costs, especially for new ambulance stations, have soared and state hospitals have been hit by tragic scandals, including treating a deadly fungal cluster in a transplant unit and leaving an autistic man to starve.

Ms Palaszczuk's admiration for the landing of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games has long given way to recriminations over the expensive redevelopment of the Gabba site, which recently led to Brisbane's mayor walking out of a planning forum.

Widespread youth crime remains a problem in many parts of Queensland and has even led to a protest group marching on state parliament.

Whatever the reasons for her decision, there is one aspect of the timing that does not benefit Ms Palaszczuk.

She will miss the seven percent pay increase that she and the 93 other MPs will receive over the next two years.