Today I came across a 2009 RFYL article entitiled Anna Bligh: Just Like Everyone Else. Fortunately there are not many of us who would be called to respond to the consequences arising out of a flood ravaged State and Anna Bligh has done so with competence, dignity, caring and  passion. What may make her like many of us is her love of running.

In the days pre-flood Anna was a regular runner with Brisbane’s Pat Carroll running group and no doubt she will return to it when something approaching normalcy (as much as that term can apply to a State Premier) returns to the State. A quote from the article shows that Anna can turn a good phrase or two when she says “For me, getting up and being out when the sun is coming up ….and you’re running around the river … no matter how ugly the day is going to be … how hard the decisons I have to confront are, it’s a good reminder that the world is beautiful.”

Today she visited Grantham, the town  hit viciously by a torrential and violent flash flood which left many fatalities in its wake. Many are still missing and the town is grieving. However the fighting spirit Anna referred to in her press conference yesterday ‘I want us to remember who we are. We’re Queenslanders, we’re the people that they breed tough north of the border’ was reflected in this twitpic taken by her team as they visited the town.

Aussie Spirit alive in Grantham flood recovery

Anna says “I find if I do let my running slip, that’s when I’ll find the job getting on top of me” which just makes me think, she must be slipping out for the odd quiet run, wellies and all.

Anna Bligh is an inspiration.