Opinion: Steven Miles immature, ungracious in defeat

In the end it was all about children: giving the lunch or locking them up. As the voters in Townsville, Mackay and bayside Brisbane have shown, curbing youth crime is what matters most to Queenslanders, writes Kylie Lang.

In the end it was all about children: feeding them sandwiches or locking them up.

As the good people of Townsville, Mackay and Capalaba demonstrated with conviction on Saturday, curbing youth crime is what matters most to Queenslanders, not doling out lunches in primary schools.

David Crisafulli’s adult crime adult time pledge was a clear winner this election, while Steven Miles’ sangas failed to cut the mustard.

Yet Mr Miles was so in love with this bizarre idea – making silly TikTok videos about a scheme that would slug taxpayers more than $1.4bn – that he couldn’t help himself from banging on about it again last night.

What should have been a concession speech became a sales pitch for being re-elected, which made me wonder if he had been given the wrong polling data. Did someone switch out the results from 2015 when his predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk sailed into government?

Premier Steven Miles on stage at the Murrumba Downs Tavern on Saturday night. Picture: John Gass

Watching a grinning Mr Miles talk up the supposed benefits of his lunch plan – including helping kids concentrate and be nicer to teachers – was the strangest thing I’ve seen in the campaign. Make that post campaign.

The election is over, Mr Miles. You lost. Forget the damned sandwiches.

The defeated Premier’s speech was immature and, as Labor stalwart Graham Richardson observed, “ungracious”.

In refusing to congratulate David Crisafulli, Mr Miles came across as a spoilt child.

In refusing to concede defeat, he appeared deluded.

Mr Crisafulli, in stark contrast, was all class. Straight off the bat, he thanked Steven Miles and his wife Kim for their service to Queensland.

He also paid tribute to those Labor MPs who had lost their seats – a nice touch reflecting the level of humility that underscored his 18-minute speech.

Mr Crisafulli has promised big changes, and deadlines are looming for some of them.

They say a week is a long time in politics but the next 100 days will be short.

Last night Mr Crisafulli told Queenslanders that history would show Labor’s fear tactics to be baseless.

It would show that the LNP had delivered on its promises – including reducing youth crime and cutting ambulance ramping – to such an extent that Queenslanders would reward his government with a second term.

Premier Crisafulli should not get too ahead of himself.

Yes, Queenslanders have turned on Labor – disgusted by its wet lettuce approach to the issues that keep us awake at night (giving kids sandwiches isn’t one of them) – but we will also be watching closely to see that the LNP walks the talk.