Coralee O’Rourke rejects talk she will be replaced as state candidate
Labor minister Coralee O’Rourke has confirmed her candidacy for the state seat of Mundingburra despite continuing speculation she could be replaced.
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Labor minister Coralee O’Rourke has confirmed her candidacy for the state seat of Mundingburra despite continuing speculation she could be replaced.
Ms O’Rourke, who is the Communities, Disability Services and Seniors Minister, spoke to the media today for the first time since the speculation emerged a week ago that she was reconsidering whether to run.
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She was forthright in her comments that she was the endorsed candidate and appeared relaxed about the speculation, brushing it off as “politics” and that she was “used to this kind of stuff”.
Asked if she could be more forthcoming about whether she would run, Ms O’Rourke said she did not know what else she could say.
Asked if her name would be on the ballot ticket, she said: “I’m the candidate for Mundingburra, I don’t really know what else you want me to say. I’ve said yes, I’ve nominated, I’m endorsed”.
Asked why there was so much speculation, she said: “I would actually like to know because it certainly hasn’t come from me, so I don’t who’s talking about this but it has not come from me”.
Asked if the speculation was rubbish, she said: “Well, as I said, I don’t know who has started this so I am endorsed, I’m currently going through, we have a campaign team, the whole point is to have a Palaszczuk government for our first four-year term and I’m working towards that”.
Ms O’Rourke said she thought everybody knew she had dealt with breast cancer over almost the past two years.
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“But it was a commitment that I made to the party, to the government, I went through the nomination process, I went through the preselection process and I’m currently the endorsed candidate for the seat of Mundingburra,” she said.
When asked how she felt about people spreading this kind of thing, she said: “This is politics. I’m used to this kind of stuff”.
She said she had the full support of her Left faction and that no one had spoken to her about someone replacing her as the candidate.
“Not that anyone has spoken to me about, not that I’m aware of,” Ms O’Rourke said.
Originally published as Coralee O’Rourke rejects talk she will be replaced as state candidate