Des Houghton: Premier Steven Miles won’t own his past

Steven Miles was front and centre of several of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s failed initiatives. To say otherwise is deceptive, writes Des Houghton.

Premier Steven Miles during a Parliamentary Estimates hearing this week. Picture: Dan Peled

I find it incredibly dishonest that Premier Steven Miles has rushed into the election campaign pretending the past nine years didn’t happen.

He was front and centre of several failed Palaszczuk government initiatives.

To say otherwise is deceptive. I have not heard Miles mention Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk by name once since she was ousted in a union coup d’ etat.

At this week’s Parliamentary Estimates hearing the Premier seemed to me to do everything he could to paper over the past and avoid scrutiny.

There was a tense passage when the Mangocube saga was raised. Opposition leader David Crisafulli and LNP Shadow Integrity Minister Fiona Simpson peppered Miles with questions as to whether he used any mobile phone secure-messaging services with auto-delete functionality like Snapchat or WhatsApp to communicate with union boss Gary Bullock, who got rid of Palaszczuk.

Former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Liam Kidston

Miles prevaricated: “Not for official business, no,” he said in answer to repeated questioning from Simpson. Crisafulli referred to Mangocube three times, and a 2016 thread “where emails from a private account from yourself and Jackie Trad (were) titled ‘cabinet-in-confidence’.” He was soon on the attack again, asking Miles about reports he had received that “union officials were taking photos of the children of employees at their school”.

Crisafulli added: “We have seen the CFMEU Cross River Rail blockades escalate to punch-ups. We have seen work equipment sabotaged, creating safety issues. I just want to confirm that the Premier still thinks it is okay to associate with these kinds of people.”

Miles said he wouldn’t condone that kind of behaviour. He also would not reveal all the details or costs of jaunts to regional Queensland in two government jets.

Steven Miles is trying to paper over the past, according to Des Houghton. Picture: Steve Pohlner

After reading the transcripts I still don’t know whether any camera operator, a film crew or spin doctors travelled with him or in Police Minister Steve Gollschewski’s jet.

Miles was Minister for Health for three years from 2017 as hospital bed shortages caused ambulance ramping to increase. He was Minister for Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning in 2020 as the housing crisis worsened and while CFMEU was sending the cost of infrastructure projects like hospitals and highways soaring.

Miles was Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection and Minister for National Parks and the Great Barrier Reef in 2015 when we got the first warnings that wind and solar renewables would require precious farmland and forests to be torn apart for new power lines that would harm koala habitats.

He was also Minister Assisting the Premier on Olympics Infrastructure from 2020 when the Gabba redevelopment was mooted. And what a debacle that became with poor planning and a lack of ministerial oversight from Palaszczuk and Miles with the $1bn price tag plucked out of the air. And Miles was Deputy Premier as the youth crime crisis escalated and while police turned a blind eye to blatant union intimidation exposed in a Courier-Mail special report. And he still has not condemned union thuggery.

Miles’s record speaks for itself.