Deborah Kay Frecklington (born 3 September 1971) is an Australian politician who serves as the member for Nanango in the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly ...

, having won the seat at the 2012 state election. She was the Leader of the Queensland Opposition and leader of the

Liberal National Party of Queensland The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a major conservative political party in Queensland, Australia. It was formed in 2008 by a merger of the Queensland divisions of the Liberal Party and the National Party. In most other states ...

(LNP) before resigning as party leader following the LNP’s loss at the 2020 Queensland state election. She is currently serving as

Attorney-General of Queensland The attorney-general of Queensland is a ministerial position of the Government of Queensland with responsibility for the state's legal and justice system. , the attorney-general of Queensland is Deb Frecklington. List of attorneys-general of ...

as well as Minister for Justice and Minister for Integrity under

David Crisafulli David Frank Crisafulli (; born 14 April 1979) is an Australian politician currently serving as the 41st Premier of Queensland since 28 October 2024 and leader of the Liberal National Party (LNP) since 12 November 2020. He has been the member ...

Early life

Frecklington was born in Miles in south-west Queensland. She grew up on a cattle property at Guluguba and attended Guluguba State School. For her secondary schooling, she was a boarder at Ipswich Girls' Grammar School. Frecklington has a Bachelor of business (

University of Southern Queensland The University of Southern Queensland is a public research university based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, the sixth largest city in the Australian state of Queensland Founded in 1967 after a successful campaign by the local Darling Down ...

) and a Bachelor of law (

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

). She has worked in the clothing, motor vehicle and newspaper industries. Her career takes in the co-management of broad-acre cropping properties with her husband. During her time as a lawyer, she worked for Kelly & Frecklington Solicitors, specialising in family and property law.

Politics

Frecklington was appointed assistant minister for Finance, Administration and Regulatory Reform on 3 April 2012 and subsequently appointed to the role of assistant minister to the premier in June 2014. Following the LNP's defeat in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, she was appointed to the LNP front bench as Shadow Minister for Agriculture. In 2016, she was elected unopposed as deputy leader of the LNP—and hence deputy leader of the opposition—after Tim Nicholls ousted Lawrence Springborg as leader.

Leader of the LNP

After Nicholls led the party to a loss at the 2017 state election, Frecklington was elected the leader of the LNP at a party-room meeting on 12 December 2017. Frecklington secured 25 votes out of a possible 39 in the first round of voting. Former leader John-Paul Langbroek received 10 votes while outsider Mark Robinson received three votes, and there was one informal vote. Frecklington became only the second female Queensland opposition leader in history, and the first woman to lead the non-Labor side in Queensland. She is also the second LNP leader from a long-held national seat; Nanango was the seat of former long-serving National Premier

Joh Bjelke-Petersen Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (13 January 191123 April 2005) was an Australian politician and farmer who served as premier of Queensland between 1968 and 1987, for almost 20 years, as state leader of the National Party (earlier known as the C ...

, who held it and its successor seat, Barambah, from 1947 to 1987. Frecklington took the LNP into the 2020 Queensland state election. The LNP was heavily defeated, suffering a five-seat swing and winning only five seats in Brisbane. Frecklington initially indicated she would stay on as leader, but on 2 November announced she would call a

leadership spill In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply a spill) is a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions (leader and deputy leader in ...

which she would not contest. On 12 November,

was elected leader. Soon afterward, Frecklington became shadow minister for water and shadow minister for regional development in Crisafulli's shadow cabinet. She is one of the few state politicians in Australia to have never spent a day on the backbench, having spent her entire career as a junior minister (2012-2015), shadow minister (2015-2016, 2020–present), deputy opposition leader (2016-2017) and opposition leader (2017-2020). After the LNP's victory in the 2024 Queensland state election, Frecklington was appointed Attorney General, Minister for Justice and Minister for Integrity by newly elected premier, David Crisafulli.

Personal life

Frecklington lives with her husband in Esk.

References

External links