11th-hour voting on Steven Miles’ new Queensland cabinet

New Queensland Premier Steven Miles will face fresh scrutiny over Labor’s handling of youth crime problems as he prepares to unveil a new frontbench.

Steven Miles, right, at Townsville Disaster Emergency Centre with Cameron Dick, left, and Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll.

New Queensland Premier Steven Miles will face fresh scrutiny over Labor’s handling of youth crime problems as he prepares to unveil a new frontbench.

The north Queensland city of Townsville, home to three must-win Labor seats, is enduring an escalating crime wave with dozens of cars stolen, businesses raided and police cars and ambulances rammed in the past fortnight.

Police Commissioner Kata­rina Carroll on Thursday said crime in the city had “spiked like we have not seen it before”.

“It has been an incredibly difficult week,” she said. “We have pretty well flooded the place with resources and police.”

Juvenile crime has been a major policy pressure point for the government after a series of high profile crimes, allegedly committed by teenagers, including the stabbing murder of Brisbane mother Emma Lovell.

The state has overridden its own human rights laws twice this year to try to crack down on young offenders, by reintroducing breach-of-bail penalties and allowing children to be detained in adult prisons and at police watch houses.

One Labor MP said Mr Miles would have to prioritise rehabilitating the government’s image on youth crime if Labor were to have any chance of winning October’s state election.

“It will be hard to keep majority government if we lose those three seats in Townsville – we have to hold at least one,” they said.

Mr Miles said Townsville was experiencing “a very, very concerning crime wave”, with dozens of extra police sent to help.

In the first meeting of his cabinet, expected on Monday, Mr Miles will seek a sign-off on funding for a permanent police helicopter in Townsville.

Frantic negotiations were under way on Thursday as part of a frontbench overhaul, with Mark Bailey, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Stirling Hinchliffe to depart from the ministry, and potentially Craig Crawford.

Labor’s Right will hold a last-minute vote on Friday morning to decide who from the faction should be elevated to cabinet.

The Right will gather ahead of a caucus meeting of all Labor MPs, where Mr Miles and his new deputy, Cameron Dick, will be formally endorsed.

Mr Dick’s Right faction emerged as kingmakers this week following a leadership face-off between Mr Miles and Health Minister Shannon Fentiman.

The Right is expecting to anoint three new cabinet members in the reshuffle. Those tipped as most likely to be promoted were Charis Mullen, Bart Mellish and Michael Healy.

Greenslopes MP Joe Kelly, a former nurse who was acting Speaker during Curtis Pitt’s absence this year, has confirmed he would also nominate.

Party sources said Linus Power, chair of parliament’s ethics committee, was considering a tilt as was first-term MP Jimmy Sullivan. Both Mr Power and Mr Sullivan declined to comment when approached.

One Right MP said a ballot was “new territory” for the faction, which was “used to being told what to do”.

“But if this (promotions) had have been decided from above, there would have been a lot of noses out of joint.”

Former Electrical Trades Union official Lance McCallum, who holds the ultra-safe seat of Bundamba, is widely tipped to take one of the Left faction’s spots following the resignation of Transport Minister Mr Bailey.

On Thursday, Mr Dick said all 52 Labor MPs were entitled to attend the caucus meeting, including Ms Palaszczuk. “I anticipate she will (attend) as a member of the caucus,” he said.