Analysis: Poll one of the worst ever seen by Steven Miles and Labor

Our latest polling will leave the premier and strategists wondering what shots they have left in the locker, writes state political editor Hayden Johnson.

Queenslanders are being led by a rudderless government and a premier with no answer to the strengthening tide of change building to sweep him from office.

This poll will be one of the worst ever seen by Premier Steven Miles and the 50 Labor MPs who placed their job security on his ability to end three years of directionless government.

Listening to Queenslanders has been the hallmark of Mr Miles’s premiership, but it appears they’ve stopped listening to him.

Mr Miles’s ascension to the top job has delivered no predicted electoral bounce, struck no blows against the LNP and fostered little admiration of him as premier.

Things have gotten worse and it is not what the suburban dad expected.

For three years, as Labor’s electoral fortunes plunged, a fidgety Mr Miles sat next to Annastacia Palaszczuk privately pondering and planning what he’d do differently.

When he finally got a chance to lead he publicly declared winning the election would be a near insurmountable challenge – while confidently confiding in colleagues it could be done.

Six months on and Mr Miles seems to be without answers.

Two by-election drubbings in March failed to prompt the government to change its approach or message.

Today’s poll will be sombre reading among Labor MPs – especially those in fairly safe electorates who’ve spent three-and-a-half years napping.

It will leave the premier and his close circle of strategists wondering what shots they have left in the locker.

One will certainly be fired by Cheshire cat Treasurer Cameron Dick, with his pre-election budget likely to be packed with political sweeteners aimed at easing the cost-of-living burden.

Mr Miles might have had a plan for the top job, but he’ll be ruing the limited chance his predecessor gave him to implement it.

In the final 12 months of Ms Palaszczuk’s floundering reign Labor MPs continued, begrudgingly, to declare she remained their best electoral asset.

Now, six months before the election, those MPs are drifting towards a wipe-out.