Opinion: Hinchinbrook loss is not a referendum on Steven Miles

Labor is in a world of pain in the bush and they need to get back to their roots, fast, writes Robert Schwarten.

Premier David Crisafulli (right) and Opposition Leader Steven Miles

If you thought Labor could win the Hinchinbrook by-election you should avail yourself immediately of a federally funded mental health plan, because this is a seat that Labor hasn’t won since the electoral roll there was dominated by manual cane workers, cutters, mill employees and labourers seven decades ago.

The truth is most voters there would rather cut their hand off than vote Labor, so it is hardly surprising fewer than ever voted for us last Saturday.

Our candidate should be given life membership for even putting his head in the tiger’s mouth.

And now for some reason this is being painted as a referendum on the leadership of Steven Miles.

You can be sure that there will be plenty of background noise and off-the-record tips on what he should have done. But while he gets to be the one in the gun, everyone else ducks for cover.

That said, the editor had it right in Monday’s editorial: Our party needs to refocus on the regions, where the Labor Party is now virtually voiceless and voters are being exposed to the propaganda of a well-oiled taxpayer-funded media manipulation machine that relentlessly attacks my party on every front.

We also have to develop policies that are traditional Labor values. Our fight has always been poverty in all forms – and that is still the case.

We need to also reclaim the narrative around our successes – like all those people benefiting from 50c fares. Or the students benefitting from world-class classrooms built under Labor. Or projects like Rockhampton’s new rugby league stadium , the Cross River Rail – and the billions of dollars being spent creating top-quality hospitals.

The caucus has elected Steven Miles to lead and there is no suggestion that anyone better or more qualified, committed or determined is willing to shoulder this heavy load.

It is quite evident that there is unity in the ranks of the Labor state caucus – something that cannot be said for the federal LNP.

Given Premier Crisafulli’s boasting and chest thumping over a win in a contest between the Right and ultra-Right, he would do well to remember that when you’re at the top the only way forward is down.

Time and circumstance will prove that. Humility in victory and nobility in defeat appears to be a foreign concept to him.

Robert Schwarten is a former state Labor minister