Annastacia Palaszczuk was born 45 years ago in Durack, went to pre-school at Serviceton South State School in the same suburb in Brisbane's southwest, went to primary school at Jamboree Heights and then to St Mary's College in Ipswich.
"As all the Catholics living in that Inala, Durack, Darra area did," Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
My father (former Labor MP Henry Palaszczuk ) went to St Edmunds (a Catholic boys college at Ipswich).
"So it was natural that I would go to St Mary's.
She is proud of the Inala-Ipswich background and the influence it has had on her life.
The Palaszczuks were a Polish immigrant family, with her father beginning life in Australia at the Wacol Migrant Camp.
He became a primary school teacher - "and taught half of Inala he will tell you" - before entering state politics.
Stacia is one of four sisters born to Henry and wife Lorelle.
Siblings Cathy, Nadia and Julia have given her four nephews and nieces, who she proudly teaches to swim in her home pool.
By her early 20s she had two degrees - in Arts and Law from University of Queensland and a Masters in Arts from the London School of Economics.
In 1992 she went to the United States on a political study tour and listened to Bill Clinton as he began his push for the US presidency.
"We were following the presidential election campaign," she remembered.
"We were observers. They had a number of people from different political parties right across Australia selected to go over and follow the election campaign.
"At that time Bill Clinton was running to be the president and I remember hearing him speak in New Jersey and it was just amazing, passionate.
"And what Bill Clinton was always able to do was connect with people.
"And to me it is always important that you have to talk and listen to people as much as possible."
She has known sadness, losing a baby 11 weeks into a pregnancy when she was 34 and contracting endometriosis, which affects fertility.
Four years of IVF treatment were unsuccessful. Two brief marriages - in the mid-1990s to political journalist George Megalogenis and in 2004 to former senator Joe Ludwig's chief of staff Simon Every - both suffered.
In 2006, as she was considering life as a solicitor, she sought pre-selection for her dad's seat of Inala and won.
By September 2006, the name Palaszczuk rolled on as the MP for Inala but it was St Mary's College girl Stacia Palaszczuk, not Henry, who turned up at the office.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/queensland-state-election-2015/queensland-state-election-...
