Premier reveals reason he’s ‘not surprised’ by dire polling

Steven Miles has spent his first two weeks in the top job attempting to reset the government by bringing five new faces into cabinet and moving to fix spiralling crime.

Premier Steven Miles insists he isn’t surprised by new polling which shows Labor’s leadership change has failed to increase the party’s support.

The poll, conducted by UComms for The Courier-Mail on December 21 and 22, revealed the LNP retained its edge over Labor with a two-party-preferred vote of 51 per cent to the government’s 49 per cent.

It is a similar result to the October YouGov poll under Annastacia Palaszczuk which showed a two-party vote of 52-48 per cent.

Mr Miles has spent his first two weeks in the top job attempting to reset the government by bringing five new faces into cabinet and moving to fix spiralling crime.

The Premier said the polling proved what he said earlier, that winning the 2024 state election would be line conquering something “taller than Everest”.

Premier Steven Miles and deputy premier Cameron Dick, at a house whose roof was impacted be a fallen tree on Davidson Rd, Jimboomba, on Tuesday, December 26. Photo Steve Pohlner

“I don’t think there’s any surprises in what’s being reported,” he said.

“We’ve known for a long time that we’re the underdog going into next year’s election year.

“What I’ve said and we’ll keep saying is that I intend to prove to Queenslanders over the next 10 months that we are the best choice for them not by telling them that, but by showing by working hard every single day.”

Separately, Mr Miles declined to be drawn on whether he was continuing to receive the taxpayer-funded internal polling commissioned by Annastacia Palaszczuk to shape the government’s policies in the lead up to the 2024 election.

Costing taxpayers some $393,000, the Ipsos Public Affairs polling was being provided to the state government every six weeks, but the results so far have not been provided to Queenslanders.

When asked if he would continue the practice, Mr Miles said he had other priorities to focus on.

“There’s been a bit going on the last couple weeks, so research program is a fair way down the list of priorities for me and I’ve been as you know mostly in the state’s far north assisting with the disaster recovery there and now it’s Boxing Day and here I am,” he said.

“I haven’t got that far.”