Editor’s View: Steven Miles won’t be living the dream much longer if fix doesn’t come soon

The Deputy Premier claims to have secured his “dream job”. If some big changes aren’t made soon the dream gig could come to an end, writes the editor.

Despite what he says, you can bet that it is not actually Steven Miles’s dream job to be deputy premier. But, regardless, being in government in any capacity is a dream when compared to the hard slog of being in Opposition.

The reality, however, is that if cost of living continues to be such a concern for Queenslanders that could well be the fate Mr Miles and the Labor Party are facing after the next election in October next year.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

The most significant finding in last week’s YouGov poll for The Courier-Mail was that just 31 per cent of respondents think the state is heading in the right direction. At the time of the last election in late 2020, that was 54 per cent. And even more worringly for those in power is that 47 per cent of people think the state is heading in the wrong direction. That result has only once been higher – on the eve of the election in 2012 that saw Anna Bligh’s Labor reduced to a rump in State Parliament.

Further, almost two in three Queenslanders say cost of living is their top or second top concern, and more think the LNP would do a better job of handling it than the Palaszczuk administration – for which more respondents think is partly responsible for the crisis than blame the war in Ukraine.

Today’s revelation that the cost of living has soared higher quicker in Brisbane than any other capital city this year will only stoke these fires. It means the government simply must figure out how it can meaningfully help – and quickly.