COMMENT: By Harry Clarke, Editor
It was early in 2013 and Annastacia Palaszczuck had just been thrust unexpectedly into the position of State Opposition Leader.
Months earlier, then-Premier Campbell Newman had swept to power in an election landslide that left Labor with a mere seven seats in the Queensland Parliament.
Ms Palaszczuck would be named Labor leader. She’d show great resolve as Opposition Leader and would defy the odds to win back government from Newman in 2015.
Now, of course, she’s been in office for two terms and polls suggest she will remain for a third.
But back in 2013, Ms Palaszczuck was in charge of a drastically depleted Labor opposition and was setting about rebuilding the party.
One of the first things she did as Opposition Leader was visit south west Queensland on what she described as a “listening tour”.
At the time I was working in my first job as a journalist with Chinchilla’s local newspaper. I recorded the following interview with Ms Palaszczcuk and the recording has been online ever since.
With the state election looming, I thought it was timely to republish the old interview for the Country Caller audience.
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