Steven Miles’ warning to unions after secret polling emerges
Acting Premier Steven Miles has issued a warning to the state’s unions after it was revealed secret polling was being conducted on Annastacia Palaszczuk’s leadership.
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Acting Premier Steven Miles says Queensland’s unions should remember what “their members went through under the LNP” after it was revealed secret polling was being conducted on Annastacia Palaszczuk’s leadership.
Information seen by The Courier-Mail shows voters being asked to “in a few words tell us your thoughts on Annastacia Palaszczuk”, with union-linked Pollster UComms undertaking seat polling in the ultra marginal Labor-held electorate of Bundaberg, the LNP-held seat of Bonney on the Gold Coast, and the relatively safe inner-north seat of Ferny Grove.
The poll also asked voters what they believed the Labor government “could do better” and what state policy was “most important” to them.
A report published by The Australian stated senior union officials were feeling frustrated over the burgeoning issue of leadership, with claims of threats to cut campaign spending unless Ms Palaszczuk stands aside.
Mr Miles on Thursday continued to publicly back Ms Palaszczuk, and said the reports of secret union polling had not come up in a conversation with the Premier - currently on a trade mission in China - on Thursday morning.
“I don’t think she’d be too concerned about this kind of gossiping, this happens from time to time,” he said.
“In every conversation I’ve had with anyone from the union movement, they have indicated strong support for the Premier.
“They know that their members, the workers of Queensland, are far better off because of the actions and the leadership of Annastacia Palszcuk over the last three terms.
“I know those same unions remember what 2012, 2013, 2014 felt like, what their members went through under the LNP. I know that none of them would do anything that would put that at risk.”
Asked whether he would ask the unions to back Ms Palaszczuk, he said we would “say to them privately the same thing I’ve said publicly”.
“That is, that the best future for their members, the working people of Queensland, is to re-elect the Palaszczuk Labor government,” he said.
An exclusive YouGov poll, commissioned by the Courier-Mail, revealed last month Ms Palaszczuk was no longer Queensland’s preferred Premier for the first time and her performance rating is worse than Anna Bligh and Campbell Newman.
It was the worst result for the Premier since she took office in 2015 and shows Labor is on the path towards a bruising defeat at next year’s election.
It revealed the LNP has extended its two-party lead over Labor to 52-48 per cent – putting about a dozen seats at risk if an election was held today, just shy of the 13 it needs to win government.
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