The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Annastacia Palas­zczuk’s resolute stand turned tide

It was the year Annastacia Palas­zczuk cemented her place in Australian history as the country’s most successful female leader.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk cemented her place in Australian history as the country’s most successful female leader. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

It was the year Annastacia Palas­zczuk cemented her place in Australian history as the country’s most successful female leader.

Once derided as a seat warmer while opposition leader and then “accidental premier’’ — after her surprise 2015 defeat of the one-term government of Campbell Newman — she won her third consecutive election in 2020.

Before the next election in 2024, she will eclipse Peter Beat­tie’s nine years in power and challenge the state’s longest-serving Labor premier — William Forgan Smith, who led the state for a decade until 1942 — if she runs again.

Yet while she is a worthy nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, 2020 did not look like it would be her year.

App users tap here to nominate your Australian of the Year

Last January, many commentators and politicians predicted she was facing defeat at the Oct­ober 31 poll. Labor had been smashed in Queensland in the 2019 federal election, and she was effectively being labelled by the opposition as a “do nothing” leader overseeing nation-leading unemployment.

It didn’t help that her deputy, Jackie Trad, had dominated the headlines for months over a succession of integrity scandals.

Ms Palaszczuk refused to dump Ms Trad from cabinet — fearing her partyroom clout as leader of the dominant Left ­faction — and it damaged public perception of her authority.

The global pandemic, and Ms Palaszczuk’s handling of the threat of the virus, saved her.

Some pundits have seen this as more evidence of her political luck, yet while incumbency helps in a time of crisis, Ms Palaszczuk impressed voters with her un­relenting measures against the spread of the virus.

Assisted by the state’s Chief Health Officer, Jeannette Young, who had been preparing for years for the possibility of a pandemic, Ms Palaszczuk put health advice above all.

She was the first to invoke emergency powers to deal with the pandemic, and was vocal at national cabinet to close borders.

Leading a state heavily dependent on holiday-makers, she refused to bow to business and tourism leaders and open borders.

It has since been revealed her government was secretly polling Queenslanders on their reaction to the lockdown, and not relying solely, as she claimed, on health advice. The polling is understood to have shown the majority supported tough border measures.

It showed at the election, with Queenslanders returning her with an increased majority.

We encourage our readers to put in a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, which was first won in 1971 by economist HC “Nugget” Coombs. Prominent Australians can be nominated by filling out the coupon above, or sending an email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Thursday, January 21.