The little known rule protecting Annastacia Palaszczuk’s job as Queensland Labor Premier

Annastacia Palaszczuk could survive a crisis of confidence in her leadership and even become Queensland’s longest-serving Premier since World War II due to little-known party rule.

After more than eight years in office, speculation is mounting that her ambitious deputy, Steven Miles, could replace her before the next election, due in October 2024.

His latest two-week trip to Europe – the second time abroad this year – comes despite poor polls, a youth crime wave and a cost of living crisis.

But Queensland Senator Anthony Chisholm, who was Labor secretary of state when the new rules were introduced nearly a decade ago, said Ms Palaszczuk would likely overtake Peter Beattie next year to become prime minister longest serving Labor since 1942.

“The next election is over 12 months away, that’s something she will tick off along the way,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

“But I don’t think it’s something she’s focused on, to be honest.

“People have the right to have a vacation.”

But the Brisbane-based senator admitted that juvenile delinquency was a political challenge.

“It’s a difficult issue for the government to resolve, but I’m confident they will make the right decisions,” he said.

Under Labor Party rules introduced in 2014, a loss of leadership requires the support of 50 per cent of MPs.

There would then be a postal vote of MPs, party members and trade unions, each having equal weight.

Despite this, Senator Chisholm said no Queensland Labor premier in living memory has been unseated in a party ballot.

“We have a strong tradition of supporting our leaders,” he said.

“I’m confident the party supports Annastacia and it’s not unusual mid-term to go through a few tough times as government, but I’m confident they can come out the other side.”

Robert Schwarten, a former Rockhampton-based Ms Palaszczuk ministerial college, suggested that anonymous backbench MPs seeking promotion were against Labour.

“They will lose the election if they continue to do what they are doing and hide behind some kind of anonymity and don’t have the courage to show their hand,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

“That’s exactly what’s going to happen.”

A Brisbane Times Resolve poll finds the opposition Liberal National Party leading the Labor Party. 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent, after preferences.

LNP leader David Crisafulli was also preferred as prime minister, with 37 per cent support, compared to 36 per cent for Ms Palaszczuk, Australia’s only female prime minister to win three elections.

Ms Palaszczuk took over as Labor leader in 2012 after Anna Bligh’s landslide defeat as prime minister saw the PLA end up with just seven seats out of an 89-seat parliament.

But in less than three years, she brought the Labor Party back to power, after her National Liberal Party predecessor, Campbell Newman, alienated civil servants, lawyers and doctors.

Labor under his tenure won re-election in 2017 and 2020, with Queensland’s border closure due to the pandemic helping him win pensioner seats normally voting for the LNP, including Caloundra and Nicklin on the Sunshine Coast, as well as Hervey Bay and Pumicestone covering Bribie Island, north of Brisbane.

Even though Ms Palaszczuk belongs to the right-wing faction, the left has controlled the party conference since 2014, when she was still in opposition, making the left-wing Dr Miles the main contender for the job of next prime minister.

“I don’t think there’s really much point in speculating about something like that,” Sen. Chisholm said.

“I see Annastacia regularly at events and feel like she is hungry, determined and hard working, just like she was on her first day of election.”

If Ms Palaszczuk survives until April 2024, she will surpass Mr Beattie’s nine years and two months with three election victories under her belt.

Her former boss, like her, won in opposition in 1998, but he also won four elections, with subsequent victories in 2001, 2004 and 2006, when there were no presidential mandates. four years in Queensland.

Passing it, she would become Queensland’s longest-serving Labor prime minister since William Forgan Smith’s decade to 1942.

It would also make her the fourth longest-serving Premier of Queensland behind National Party leader Joh Bjelke-Petersen, fellow countryman Frank Nicklin and Mr Forgan Smith.