Former Queensland CFMEU powerbroker Michael Ravbar savages Steven Miles as ‘a joke’
Labor powerbroker and ousted Queensland CFMEU boss Michael Ravbar has savaged Premier Steven Miles as a ‘joke of a leader who cannot communicate with the public.
Labor powerbroker and ousted Queensland CFMEU boss Michael Ravbar has savaged Premier Steven Miles as a “joke of a leader” who cannot communicate with the public as he encouraged thousands of trade unionists to vote the third-term government out at October’s election.
Mr Ravbar, who was one of 21 Queensland CFMEU officials sacked last week when the union was plunged into administration by the Albanese government, accused the Labor Premier of turning his back on the working class at a rally of about 4000 people in Brisbane’s CBD on Tuesday.
A former member of Labor’s national executive, Mr Ravbar said it would be a “waste of money” to campaign against the state Labor government at the upcoming election because it had already “flatlined”. He said his members had described Mr Miles as “Forrest Gump”.
“God, what a joke of a leader,” Mr Ravbar told the crowd. “Talk about a try-hard who just hasn’t got it, he can’t even communicate with the public out there.
“What you can do, you’ll have that opportunity in less than two months … vote with your feet.”
The CFMEU pulled its support for Labor ahead of the 2012 state election when Anna Bligh’s government was obliterated at the polls and left with just seven seats in the then-89 electorate parliament.
The union quit Mr Miles’s Left faction ahead of the 2020 state election.
Speaking to reporters after the rally, Mr Ravbar said Mr Miles had failed to sell Labor’s plan to voters and was likely to be defeated at the October 26 election, which successive public polls have suggested.
“We’re all different about how we communicate, but he’s just not connecting with the general public out there,” he said.
“So is that a criticism? Yeah, because the end of the day I’ve seen politicians like (Scott) Morrison who are great retail politicians – didn’t have much ability or depth but they were good retail salesmen and they got elected.
“(Mr Miles) is just not getting the connection but, again, that’s his problem, it’s not my problem.”
Speaking from Cairns, in the state’s far north on Tuesday morning, Mr Miles defended state laws passed last week that handed federal administrators powers, saying there had been violence and intimidation on construction sites for too long.
“That’s why the Australian government has acted, and we have supported them by appointing an administrator to the state-registered entity,” he said.
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