Where have I heard that song before? Qld Labor spins a US-inspired campaign remix

Since the introduction of four-year fixed terms in Queensland, state campaigns have run parallel to the biggest show in world politics – the US presidential election.

And there were more than a few nods to events on the other side of the Pacific at Labor’s official campaign launch on Sunday. Little surprise really as, politically, the Labor and Democratic parties are kindred spirits.

First, there was the DJ – a major feature of August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which served to officially launch Kamala Harris’s bid for the White House.

DJ Sunøe and Premier Steven Miles on the decks at Sunday’s Labor campaign launch.Credit: Annette Dew

There, at a packed United Centre in front of about 20,000 Democrats, DJ Cassidy transformed the traditional roll-call into a 50-state party.

At a much more modest North Lakes Community Centre, with just a few hundred of the Labor faithful, DJ Sunøe provided the soundtrack to a slightly more subdued political gathering.

And it didn’t end there.

Deputy Premier Cameron Dick again challenged his Liberal counterpart, Jarrod Bleijie, to a debate on Sunday.Credit: Jamila Toderas Filippone

Just as Harris taunted Donald Trump into a debate with her comment “if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face”, deputy Labor leader Cameron Dick did the same to his LNP counterpart.

“You pick the place, you pick the date, you pick the time, because Jarrod Bleijie, I’m ready to debate you,” he said.

“Jarrod, if you’re watching – and I know you are – just remember this: if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.”

Sound familiar?

The key difference between Harris v Trump and Dick v Bleijie (aside from the welcome absence of nuclear codes) is that Queensland’s Westminster parliamentary system means Bleijie and Dick did have plenty of opportunity to say it to each other’s face over the past four years.

Steven Miles at Labor’s campaign launch with daughter Bridie, wife Kim McDowell, and former leadership rival Shannon Fentiman.Credit: Annette Dew

But if there was one thing Labor had that the Democrats didn’t, it was the boy from Petrie and his 50¢ fares.

“I was the first person in my family to go to university, and I could do that because of good Labor government policy, but there were challenges,” Premier Steven Miles told the party faithful.

“One of them was the cost of travelling from Petrie to UQ every day. It made me think, why do we penalise the people who live furthest away with the highest public transport costs, when they are the ones we most want to get off the road?

“Well, I’ve finally been able to do something about that.”

Cue applause.

The 50¢ fares were just the beginning of Miles’s left-wing appeal, of course.

He also spruiked the 12 state-owned servos, the new state-owned electricity retailer, 50 state-owned bulk-billing clinics, an aggressive move to renewable energy, and the newly announced free lunches for all Queensland primary school students (the signature policy of Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, coincidentally enough).

There were the new police helicopters and satellite hospitals, and almost 46,450 new health workers by 2032 – the year Brisbane will host the Olympic Games, an event conspicuous by its absence in Miles’s remarks.

And it wasn’t the only thing conspicuous by its absence.

Peter Beattie was there. Annastacia Palaszczuk and Anna Bligh were not.

“All former premiers were invited today. Whether they could make it was dependent on their schedules,” Miles told journalists after the official festivities.

Struggling in the polls, Palaszczuk stunned just about everybody last December when she stood down while providing an update on Tropical Cyclone Jasper’s threat to Queensland.

Responding to Beattie’s suggestion she should have resigned earlier to give Miles a better chance, the premier said there was a limit to how long a leader should lead without a mandate of his or her own.

Annastacia Palaszczuk announces her resignation as Queensland premier on December 10 last year.Credit: Twitter 

“I’ll leave the commentary to other people, but I reckon I’ve given it a pretty good shake with the 10 months that I’ve had,” he said.

“I’ve worked really hard, I’ve delivered a lot of things that I’m really passionate about, and now I want a mandate in my own right.”

As Miles concluded his speech, Sunøe spun Bruce Springsteen’s We Take Care of Our Own – a mainstay of Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign events, and Joe Biden’s 2020 victory song.

In case you were wondering where you’d heard that song before.

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