Stunt to cash in on living costs

Eager to pick up easy votes bashing Coles and Woolworths, Queensland Premier Steven Miles made a surprise appearance on Monday at a parliamentary probe into supermarket price gouging. While not part of the committee holding the inquiry, he staged the stunt to be seen to identify with Queenslanders struggling with the cost of living. “Every time we hear from spokespeople from … Coles or Woolworths, they insist that they’ve done nothing wrong,” he complained. But, while inflation remains problematic and will keep interest rates higher for longer, undermining family budgets more than checkout prices, it is Mr Miles who needs to think about what he’s done wrong. In his view, probably nothing.

But earlier this month, in a move economists warned would fuel inflation, Mr Miles announced that every Queensland household, regardless of income and assets, would receive a $1000 energy rebate in July, months from the October state election. The overgenerous handout, un-means tested, will encourage consumer spending. It is therefore likely to further drive up the CPI. Pensioners and concession card holders will receive $1372. The announcement came hard on the heels of polling showing Labor faces an electoral thumping. After three years as deputy to Annastacia Palaszczuk, before being installed in her place in December by union boss Gary Bullock, leader of Labor’s dominant Left faction, Mr Miles is responsible for much of what has left voters disillusioned, including shambolic Olympics preparations, for which he was largely in charge under Ms Palaszczuk, and youth crime, which is biting hardest of all among voters. Mr Miles admitted as much in a recent interview: “I think for too long Labor has been a bit scared to talk about safety, about community safety. We deserted the field a bit.” A fortnight ago, families of Queenslanders allegedly killed by teen­agers out on bail took to the streets to demand appropriate sentences for young criminals and removal of a legal principle, imposed by Labor in 2016, that juveniles be detained as a last resort. Too little too late, Mr Miles has promised an overhaul, which has stirred up equity groups in the ALP that accuse the government of ­betraying party values, a concern unlikely to appease voters.