Annastacia Palaszczuk, Deb Frecklington have more in common than you would think

Deb Frecklington, left, and Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Deb Frecklington and Annastacia Palaszczuk have a bit in common when it comes to being state opposition leader.

As the Queensland Premier looks across the parliamentary aisle at Frecklington – who has, so far, survived a ham-fisted knifing by Clive’s crew in LNP party HQ – she would know what her rival is going through.

Palaszczuk became leader of a Labor caucus of just seven MPs after Campbell Newman’s record rout in 2012.

Hugely underrated, she showed grit and wile against the pugnacious LNP premier as her own party organisation was openly plotting to replace her once she inevitably lost the 2015 poll – which she won.

Frecklington has this week shown the same sort of steel in staring down the “backroom boys’’ of the LNP, who are trying to oust her ahead of the October 31 election.

It’s won her the sort of profile in the media and public that has mostly escaped Frecklington since taking the opposition leadership after the 2017 leadership.

But it is not the first stoush she has had with HQ after having to defend several of her MPs against threats of disendorsement for supporting Labor’s 2018 abortion reforms in a LNP-wide conscience vote.

And while Frecklington’s future as leader seems safe for the time being – winning the unanimous support of her party room on Monday – the same can’t be said of LNP president David Hutchinson.

A relative newcomer to politics, Hutchinson’s family has long been involved in the LNP and he was campaign director for Newman in his inner Brisbane seat, which he spectacularly lost second time around as premier.

He showed his political naivety in taking a job with LNP rival Clive Palmer – sparking outrage among the membership – and then seeking to oust Frecklington without canvassing the mood of state LNP MPs.

Small technicality that one, given it is the MP party room, and not party office who decides the parliamentary leader.

Frecklington is understood to have the strong support of federal LNP MPs, including Peter Dutton.

Some of the internal concerns over Frecklington has been her strategy in largely focusing on Labor’s mistakes and waiting until closer to the election to unveil her plans.

It is a legitimate criticism.

But now that she has won the battle against her own party, she needs to wage the policy war against Palaszczuk and Labor if she has any hope of winning government.