Michael McKenna
Steven Miles has raided the piggy-bank to win back voters but his campaign lacks vision
Listening to Steven Miles deliver his official campaign launch, it would be easy to think Labor has been in power just 10 months, not the almost 10 years it has held government.
In Sunday’s pitch for re-election on October 26, the Labor leader was determined to keep voters’ attention on the government’s record since he became Queensland Premier in December. It’s an easier sell.
Since taking over from Annastacia Palaszczuk in a backroom deal stitched up by his union mates, Miles has raided the piggy-bank and pulled out the credit card to fund billions of dollars in hand-outs to win back voters who polls show want a change of government.
The latest, a $1.4bn debt-funded plan to feed every Queensland primary school student a daily free lunch, was the centrepiece of the campaign launch in his electorate in Brisbane’s outer northern suburbs.
It was a low-key event in the North Lakes Community Centre with just over 300 supporters, whose low energy response to his speech seemed to reflect a lack of confidence in the room.
What was also lacking was an offer of a vision for the state.
Palaszczuk was notably absent, with Peter Beattie making his first campaign appearance in almost a decade.
Miles could have learnt from Beattie, who energised his campaigns and voters with a then audacious pledge in 1998 to cut unemployment (from 8.9 per cent) to 5 per cent in five years (he did) and later platform new industry and innovation with “The Smart State” whole-of-government push.
The Labor campaign – and also that of the LNP and its leader, David Crisafulli – has been bereft of any big-picture plan or economic reform.
Miles talked about kids doing better when their tummies were full, but where is the wider plan to lift education outcomes after this year’s NAPLAN results showed Queensland falling in reading and math ratings?
Instead, Miles’s focus has been on trumpeting his cost-of-living relief for voters – including 50c public transport and $1000 electricity rebates – that will add more than $5bn to the budget bottom line.
It’s hoped the measures will win over voters, particularly in Brisbane and the outer suburbs – Labor’s stronghold.
Along with Palaszczuk’s absence was any real mention of her and her government’s record over her three terms.
It is not something Miles seemed comfortable talking about, particularly on the economic front.
He often heralds the government’s championing of women’s issues, including the decriminalisation of abortion, which has become an election issue with the LNP’s shady stance on what it will do on any future vote to repeal the laws.
Yet Labor has overseen sky-rocketing state debt and a ballooning of the public service wages bill since taking office that demonstrates a lack of fiscal discipline. The bigger problem is it isn’t just Labor that won’t tackle budgetary challenges but also the LNP.