Sallyanne Atkinson tops vote for UQ Senate position
Popular lord mayor Sallyanne Atkinson is still mystified as to why voters rejected her in 1991. But in her latest election she topped the poll.
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Sallyanne Atkinson is back. She topped the poll in last week’s elections... but do not jump to conclusions.
She isn’t returning to City Hall, from where she was ignominiously turfed by voters in 1991.
She has been voted on to the University of Queensland Senate, the 22-member “board” that runs the show. She got 672 votes.
“I topped the poll from 124 candidates,” she said. “I thought that was extraordinary.”
Graduates vote for UQ Senate spots.
“I have 15 family members who are UQ graduates. They include sisters, children and in-laws.”
Atkinson, 79, has not looked back since she was defeated by Labor’s Jim Soorley, who won the mayoralty on Greens preferences.
She was Australia’s trade commissioner to France, a special Queensland representative for South-East Asia, the chairman of Queensland Tourism, and deputy mayor of the Olympic Village at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
She also served on the boards of several listed companies.
The former Courier-Mail journalist was in council for 12 years, six of them as lord mayor.
Her defeat still remains something of a mystery.
“I don’t know why I lost. I don’t dwell on that,” she said.
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