‘Not my doing’: Miles relies on Palaszczuk playbook in housing crisis

The premier twice missed a golden opportunity to apologise for the state’s failures which have led to people living in tents and cars, writes state political editor Hayden Johnson.

Premier Steven Miles addresses the Queensland Media Club on Tuesday. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire

Parts of Premier Steven Miles’s first landmark policy speech were taken straight from the Palaszczuk playbook of politics which has kept Labor in power for nine years.

Mr Miles missed a golden opportunity to apologise for the failures of the state government over almost a decade when he was twice asked what responsibility the government shouldered for the housing crisis Queensland now finds itself in.

At the Queensland Media Club on Tuesday Mr Miles delivered a safe speech – the first by a Premier at the club since October 2020 – full of aspirational policy and a descriptive understanding of the catastrophic state of housing availability.

When asked directly what responsibility the Labor government – of which he has been a central figure – took for the housing crisis, Mr Miles instead blamed global events and a surging population.

“I can’t get Russia to pull out of Ukraine I can’t bring peace to the Middle East but we can work with the levers we have,” he said.

These are valid problems, but it reeks of the political blame shifting which permeated in the Palaszczuk era.

The speech abrogated responsibility, all while the government trumpets its plan to build 53,500 social homes in 22 years. It’s built 5000 in nine years.

The premier missed a golden opportunity on Tuesday to set a fresh start and apologise to the Queenslanders – most who through no fault of their own – find themselves living in cars and tents.

Mr Miles is genuine and empathetic.

He spoke of his own family’s struggle finding a home and saving for a deposit and emphasised the heartbreak of parents changing children into school uniforms in the toilets of his local shopping centre.

Parts of his Homes for Queenslanders plan – increasing homelessness funding, a portable rental bond scheme and infill development – are worthwhile.

Policy must be ambitious, but after nine years in power Queenslanders would rightly ask why women are living with newborns in cars, landlords are renting frontyards to homeless families and why the state has been so slow to act on this critical topic.