Kylie Lang: Premier Steven Miles still haunted by ghost of Annastacia Palaszczuk
Although Annastacia Palaszczuk herself has been absent from Labor campaigning – for good reason – the sour taste of her time as premier lingers, writes Kylie Lang.
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Steven Miles has done his best to distance himself from Annastacia Palaszczuk.
It hasn’t worked.
Unlike the ghost of Campbell Newman that Labor has been at pains to invoke, the ghost of Annastacia Palaszczuk is real and omnipotent.
Although she herself has been absent from Labor campaigning – for good reason – the sour taste of her time as Premier lingers.
As does the fallout. Even before official campaigning began, senior Labor figures were aching for voters to forget the Palaszczuk years.
In June, Treasurer Cameron Dick asked us “not to express an opinion about the past”.
“The 26th of October is a fight about the future of our state, not a referendum on the last nine years,” he said.
But how are we to ignore the many failings of the Palaszczuk government? We’re living with them.
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Queensland is in a far worse position than it was in February 2015.
A key reason is the Labor government’s wholly reactionary approach to serious issues.
For the best part of a decade, there have been no pre-emptive strikes against escalating youth crime, housing unaffordability and public hospital catastrophes. Remember it was under Annastacia Palaszczuk in 2016 that breach of bail was removed as an offence for juveniles and detention as a last resort reintroduced into the Youth Justice Act.
As Terry Goldsworthy, an associate professor of criminology at Bond University, wrote in The Courier-Mail this week: “The seeds for the current crime crisis were sown by Labor. In 2023, Labor scrambled to reintroduce breach of bail for youth offenders. Since then, the true extent of the problem has been revealed.”
The cost of living has also spiralled on Labor’s watch.
One thing at which the Palaszczuk government did excel – and has been replicated under Steven Miles, who served as Deputy Premier, Health Minister and Environment Minister – is spending money it didn’t have.
Last month it was revealed Treasurer Dick’s 2023-24 budget blew out by $8.8bn – a staggering jump of 11.3 per cent from the predicted $78.6bn to $87.4bn.
Even Cameron Milner, a former Queensland ALP state secretary, has slammed the state’s fiscal position.
Writing in this newspaper on October 10, Mr Milner called for a mature conversation after the election “about how we balance the books and more sustainably manage the budget without resorting to taxing success, as Treasurer Cameron Dick has done through his unprecedented increases to coal royalties”.
Mr Milner also identified the dire lack of services for Queenslanders.
“We have the largest public service on record, but the actual services we receive as Queenslanders are now some of the worst in Australia. Ever more seem to do even less for the rest of us,” he said.
We Queenslanders also have suffered because of militant unions.
Take the CFMEU – it has hobbled the construction sector, forcing developers out of the market and deepening the housing crisis.
It is a crazy world indeed when traffic controllers make $250,000 a year while GPs, teachers, nurses and other frontline workers earn a fraction of that.
David Crisafulli has been labelled a small target.
He has been criticised for not going into elaborate detail on his plans for Queensland but unlike Steven Miles – trotting out one ridiculous pledge after another as the Titanic sinks – Mr Crisafulli is keeping his cool.
He is not resorting to sugar hits that will cost taxpayers dearly, such as Mr Miles’s idiotic idea to splash $1.4bn on free school lunches.
He will not be introducing state-run petrol stations and electricity companies either.
If elected next Saturday, Mr Crisafulli – whose energy for the job and understanding of where Queensland is at were crystal clear during Wednesday’s leaders’ debate – has vowed to immediately get stuck into youth crime, the housing crisis and cost of living pressures.
He has categorically ruled out any changes to the laws around abortion.
And in his first 100 days, he will review the plan for Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a once-in-a-lifetime event Labor has mishandled from the outset.
We cannot – and should not – forget the Palaszczuk years.
They shine brightly as an example of how wasting time and money, pandering to unions and pussy-footing around festering issues have tipped Queensland into the toilet.
LOVE
Parents bypassing fast food outlets to keep kids healthier. Research shows they’re driving alternative routes to avoid being pestered. I get it, however I prefer the lessons learned – for both parent and child – through the use of the magic word ‘no’.
LOATHE
Pet owners who refuse to put their dog on a leash when going out for a walk. Why do you think you’re special? Superiority complexes are dangerous, for other dogs and their humans. Even the best-trained animal will act out if given the chance. Snap on a lead!
Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail
kylie.lang@news.com.au
Originally published as Kylie Lang: Premier Steven Miles still haunted by ghost of Annastacia Palaszczuk
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