'Tense' COVID-19 call between Morrison and then-Queensland premier

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Annastacia Palaszczuk was surprised to see an incoming call from then-prime minister Scott Morrison.

It was September 2021 and the Queensland borders had been slammed tightly shut for months – a decision the former premier said she doesn't "resent" making – and Morrison was asking for an exemption.

A young woman had wanted to attend her father's funeral in Brisbane.

Palaszczuk, on the advice of her chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young, said no.

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"It was a very, very tense phone call. I felt threatened. I felt it was a bit intimidating," Palaszczuk told Nine.com.au.

"I've been brought up in a household where you need to respect one another. I've always valued the way I have had respectful conversations with people, and I expect the same back.

"This particular phone call was very harsh. I just hung up the phone."

Palaszczuk accused Morrison of "bullying" her during that phone call in her new memoir The Politics of Being Me.

It allegedly unfolded on the same day, she ironically pointed out, as national R U OK Day.

But she stood firm in her cabinet's decision to keep Queensland as secure as Fort Knox during the pandemic.

"I don't resent the fact that I had to be strong and make these decisions with the expert advice of the chief health officer, because you only have to look at the evidence," Palaszczuk said.

"We had seven people who passed away in Queensland during that COVID time.

"We hardly had any lengthy lockdown period. There were some snap lockdowns... but really, in Queensland, people went about their jobs normally.

"In hindsight, you know, we'd love to have kept more families together."

Nine.com.au has contacted Morrison for comment. He has previously denied 'threatening' the Queensland premier on the call.

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Her book, published nearly two-and-a-half years since her resignation from politics, reflects on some of the toughest moments of Palaszczuk's early political career and tumultuous premiership.

Palaszczuk detailed the "devastating" 2012 Labor election bloodbath, which saw her party reduced to just seven members.

She clawed her way back from stunning defeat to be elected as Queenland's second-ever female premier in 2015.

"The enormity of the task was huge, but I sat down, I wrote a plan, and I was determined to do the best I possibly could," Palaszczuk said.

But Palaszczuk's rise to the top of Queensland politics was underpinned by shattering private pain.

Palaszczuk wrote candidly about her struggle with endometriosis and infertility, having suffered a miscarriage at just 11 weeks at age 33, when she worked as a media advisor.

Years of unsuccessful IVF followed – a series of emotional blows the ex-premier said amounted to the worst pain of her life.

"Whatever they do to me in politics, I said to myself, it will never hurt like this," Palaszczuk remembers thinking.

"Nothing could hurt as much as losing my chance of having a child and then realising afterwards that it was never going to happen, that the door was going to be shut on my chapter of my life."

The climate around infertility in the mid-2000s was vastly different.

Palaszczuk said she suffered in silence until she spoke publicly a few years ago.

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"It was very hurtful and very painful... I went through a lot of it privately," she said.

"And back then there wasn't a lot of help."

Palaszczuk remained in power following that very election, stepping down as premier and retiring from politics altogether in 2023 after nine years in the top job.

"Politics is very brutal, and anyone who goes into politics needs to realise it's one of the toughest of professions," Palaszczuk said.

"You need to be able to cope with the abuse, the social media attacks, which at times are very unkind.

"But you know, I stayed true to myself, and you know the evidence is three consecutive elections."

The Red Nose Grief and Loss Support Line is available 24/7 for anyone affected by the loss of a pregnancy, stillbirth or death of a baby or child on 1300 308 307.

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