Polling: Steven Miles behind but ‘no surprise’

New Queensland Premier Steven Miles has shrugged-off polling that shows his elevation to the top job this month has failed to turn around the Labor government’s election-losing support.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tertius Pickard

New Queensland Premier Steven Miles has shrugged-off polling that shows his elevation to the top job this month has failed to turn around the Labor government’s election-losing support among the state’s voters.

Mr Miles, who replaced Annastacia Palaszczuk after the third-term premier quit on December 10, said on Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised by Labor’s continued poor showing in a new poll.

Conducted by UComms for The Courier-Mail, the poll reveals the Liberal National Party opposition has maintained its lead over with a two-party-preferred vote of 51 per cent to Labor’s 49 per cent. Just before Ms Palaszczuk resigned after months of internal party pressure over her falling popularity, successive polls had shown the government trailing LNP.

The new poll, conducted on December 21 and 22, also showed LNP leader David Crisafulli was rated higher among voters as preferred premier.

Of the 1911 Queensland voters polled, 52.2 per cent believed Mr Crisafulli would be the better premier, compared to 47.8 per cent who preferred Mr Miles.

Outside of Brisbane, the result was more pronounced with 55.9 per cent preferring Mr Crisafulli over the incumbent.

Mr Miles said the poll, the first taken since he was elevated to Labor leader under a union-orchestrated backroom deal, showed that the government remained “underdogs” for the election on October 31.

“I’m not surprised in what has been reported today, we’ve known for a long time that we’re the underdogs going into next year’s election,” he said.

“I intend to prove to Queenslanders over the next 10 months that we are the best choice for them, not by telling them that … but by showing them that we are working hard every single day.”

The poll has the opposition still ahead in the primary vote, with 36.2 per cent support compared to Labor’s 34.4 per cent.

Since his elevation, Mr Miles has crisscrossed the state and announced a cabinet reshuffle which included the forced resignation of transport minister Mark Bailey. But the opposition has mocked Mr Miles’ claims of a “reset”, saying it is largely the same cabinet.