Mike O’Connor: Miles, sack media managers or go the same way as Palaszczuk

Did you hear the one about the Queensland government that after nine years in office decided it needed to improve its service eight months out from an election, writes Mike O’Connor.

Steven Miles with then chief of staff Danielle Cohen during an Economics and Governance Committee estimates hearing at Parliament House. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dan Peled

Should a change of government in Queensland later this year see some sitting MPs seeking a new career path, stand-up comedy beckons as a possibility.

Premier Steven Miles and his deputy Cameron Dick could take their double act on the road, having shown great promise last week when they both demanded that the Reserve Bank cut interest rates.

The message was that the two caped crusaders from the Tower of Power in William St were taking the fight to the bank on behalf of struggling Queensland families, their fearlessness matched only by their impotence.

The bank, of course, is an independent body and doesn’t take its cues from crackerjack politicians chasing headlines by staging faux crusades.

The dashing duo knew this but they went ahead with their stern-faced finger wagging theatre regardless.

I await their next performance – “Miles and Dick Warn Putin: Get Out Of Ukraine Or Else!”

This performance was a microcosm of our politics.

Do something that will be ineffectual and a complete waste of time in the faint hope that you can fool some of the people some of the time into thinking you are taking positive action.

High food prices? Make a great show of calling in supermarket executives and have a half-hearted inquiry which will do absolutely nothing to cut prices. Premier Warns Supermarket Chiefs: Cut Prices Or Else!

I bet that scared the trousers off them.

Housing crisis? Hold a summit, another meeting by another name.

Deputy Premier Cameron Dick and Premier Steven Miles could take their double act on the road, having shown great promise when they both demanded that the Reserve Bank cut interest rates, says Mike O’Connor. Picture: Glenn Campbell/NCA NewsWire

If they want to make demands, I’ve got a few for them.

Demand that the federal government put the brakes on its runaway migration program that’s added about 600,000 to the number of people looking for somewhere to live in the past year.

American Airlines announced last week that it will begin flying from Brisbane to Dallas-Fort Worth direct later this year, which is a good thing.

More flights mean lower fares, so how about demanding that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese grants Qatar Airways’ request for an increase in flights from Australia, a request that was denied when Qantas objected.

How about demanding that the restrictions on landing slots at Sydney Airport that favour Virgin and Qantas be removed to allow for more players in the domestic market on lucrative routes.

“Premier Warns PM: Get Out of Chairman’s Lounge and Cut Air Fares Or Else!”

The decision to appoint a public servant who had just been handed a $400,000 golden parachute as head of a housing supply inquiry and a former chief of staff of the Premier to head a new division with the Premier’s Department charged with improving government service, a position that was never advertised, raised this political farce to a new level.

Then Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Steven Miles in 2020. Picture: Annette Dew

Both people may be eminently qualified for the roles but surely, among the 240,000 odd public servants presently on the government’s payroll, there was someone who was similarly qualified who may have put their hand up for the positions if they’d been asked – but they weren’t.

If the Miles and Dick double act is short of gags, I’ve got one for them.

Did you hear the one about the government that after nine years in office decided it needed to improve its service eight months out from an election?

Government service? A friend spent half the night last week being driven from one end of the city to the other in an ambulance as the paramedics searched for a hospital that would admit him. This is Third-World stuff, but has become so commonplace that we are slowly being conditioned to accept it.

Premier Steven Miles looks on as Deputy Premier Cameron Dick speaks at a post-cabinet media conference in January. Picture: Glenn Campbell/NCA NewsWire

Miles’s predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk may have been shown the door by union bosses when they believed she had become a liability, the prospect of them losing their control over government triggering her downfall.

A good many Queenslanders, however, had already decided, as Paul Keating most famously said of Peter Costello, that she was all tip and no iceberg.

Then suddenly she was gone, erased from the political scene. Exit stage left.

I don’t know who is advising the Premier, but if he wants to have any hope of still being in the job after the election, he should show them the door.

We’ve had enough of stage-managed, head-nodding, high-vis jacket, hard-hat-wearing media appearances.

Sack the media managers and get on with the job.

The clock is ticking and as Palaszczuk discovered when the end comes, it can come very quickly.