Peter Beattie, Gary Bullock say Annastacia Palaszczuk should have stood down earlier

The state’s top union powerbroker and four-term premier Peter Beattie both say Annastacia Palaszczuk should have quit sooner to give Steven Miles a better shot at luring back disillusioned voters.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles at the Labor launch on Sunday with his daughter Bridie. Picture: Adam Head

Queensland’s top union powerbroker, Gary Bullock, and four-term Labor premier Peter Beattie have both declared Annastacia Palaszczuk should have quit sooner to give Steven Miles a better chance at luring back disillusioned voters ahead of the October 26 state election.

In an interview with The Australian at Labor’s official campaign launch on Sunday morning – where Mr Miles put a repurposed Greens policy of free school lunches at the centre of his election bid – Mr Bullock confessed it would have been “great” if Ms Palaszczuk decided to step down earlier.

Mr Beattie, Queensland’s longest-serving Labor premier since WWII, agreed that Ms Palaszczuk stayed in the job too long, revealing he had “no doubt” she would have lost the election if it were held last year.

The leadership declarations from the two senior Labor figures signalled a growing belief in Labor that the election remained unwinnable, despite internal party polling suggesting the race was tightening on the back of billions of dollars worth of cost-of-living handouts.

Mr Miles used his launch on Sunday to announce a re-elected Labor government would plunge the state into further debt, borrowing another $1.4bn to provide free lunch to every state school student from prep to year 6 from Term 1, 2025.

Former premier Peter Beattie. Picture: Adam Head

Union powerbroker Gary Bullock in the crowd on Sunday. Picture: Adam Head

The program, which will not be extended to independent or faith-based schools, was first proposed by the Greens in 2021 and savaged by Labor ministers at the time as redundant and not based on evidence.

The free school lunch pledge is part of Mr Miles’s suite of pre-election handouts announced since Ms Palaszczuk’s resignation as part of a bid to win back voters who have grown increasingly frustrated with the third-term Labor government over its perceived failures on crime, health and housing.

Ms Palaszczuk in December bowed to months of internal pressure and resigned after nine years as premier, in the face of successive published polls that showed her personal popularity had nosedived.

Well-placed sources at the time told The Australian she made the announcement days after a “frank” conversation about her future with Mr Bullock and Queensland ALP president John Battams.

She had also been warned that union leaders planned to raise concerns with her at their quarterly meeting with cabinet ministers that week.

Mr Bullock, state secretary of the United Workers Union and a member of Labor’s national executive, insisted on Sunday that Ms Palaszczuk alone had made the decision to go.

“Annastacia made the decision about leaving and wanted to give Steven a run, so he’s had 10 months, and he’s done some great things in that 10 months,” he said.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing and, you know, had he had longer in the job, maybe he’d be able to convince more voting people out there of the things he wants to do for Queensland.

“I think it would have been great had she gone a bit earlier, but it was her choice and I supported her in that decision, as did Steven (Miles).”

While praising Ms Palaszczuk as a “great premier with a cohesive team”, Mr Bullock said he believed Mr Miles would have had a better chance of winning the election if she had left sooner.

He described the campaign as a “an uphill battle”, and Mr Miles “behind at this point”.

“Had Steven been in the job a bit longer, would he have been in a better position than he is today? I don’t know, I think he probably would have,” he said.

“But again, the biggest thing in politics, that I believe strongly, is stability and unity, and that doesn’t come by knifing people that we do see in politics.”

Mr Beattie, who retired as premier in 2007 giving successor Anna Bligh two years in the job before she won the 2009 election in her own right, said all leaders had a lifespan and the onus was on them to formulate a transition plan.

“As you know, when I stood down, no one was challenging me, and I could have stayed, but I didn’t because you think ‘what’s good for Queensland?’,” he said.

“(Mr Miles) has had to set out his own agenda, and I think he’s doing that, and I think the election will be a lot closer than people think.

“There’s no doubt that had there been an election 10 months ago, the Labor Party would have been in a lot of trouble, and the Labor Party would have lost and David Crisafulli would have been premier, no doubt about it.”

Asked about Mr Beattie’s comments, Mr Miles said: “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.”

“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,” he said.

“The one thing I’d say … is that there’s a limit to how long you want to be the leader without a mandate, without being elected in your own right, and I certainly want that mandate so I can do things like deliver free school lunches”.

The Greens in 2021 moved a motion in state parliament calling on the Labor government to “deliver a free healthy breakfast and lunch program to run at every state school”.

Then education minister Grace Grace rubbished the idea, accusing the Greens of “trying to solve a problem that does not exist”, with non-government organisations already funded to provide free healthy breakfast and lunch at schools in lower socio-economic areas.

During the debate, current Education Minister Di Farmer said the Greens were “ simply irresponsible by suggesting that one single thing is going to fix this huge issue”.

“If you have read anything at all about food insecurity … you know that if we do not address the key policy levers, and the reasons these children are going hungry, then we are simply putting a bandaid on a growing problem.”

Ms Palaszczuk, who was invited to Sunday’s campaign launch but did not attend, was contacted for comment.