‘You know me’: Steven Miles urges voters to trust him to lead Qld
In an exclusive interview, on the eve of the election, Premier Steven Miles – who once likened his election battle to climbing Mount Everest – says he feels he has almost conquered the mountain.
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Steven Miles is urging voters to give him a mandate to lead Queensland for four more years, promising the policies he is “passionate” about will improve their lives.
Despite the plea, Mr Miles is expected to fall agonisingly short of pulling off a miracle win when polls close at 6pm.
While driven to be elected in his own right, polling shows he will lead Labor to its first defeat since 2012.
However, in 10 months Mr Miles has closed a near impossible gap – with Labor now sitting behind the LNP in two-party preferred polling 47.5 to 52.5 per cent.
At the beginning of the campaign, when polling had the government suffering a landslide loss, Mr Miles likened his election battle to climbing Mount Everest.
Now, in an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail on the eve of the election, the Premier feels he almost conquered the mountain.
“I can’t see the top, so I don’t know how far away it is,” he said.
The Premier in December faced a significant challenge to rally Labor troops and win over Queensland following former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s resignation.
Faced with a public falling out of love with Labor, Mr Miles embarked on a different style of leadership.
“I always knew I would be a very different kind of person, and that’s not meant as a criticism at all,” he said.
“And I think different times suit different leadership styles – I think Annastacia’s leadership style was very suited to bringing us back against Newman to first-term minority government, through that period of Covid, whereas my leadership style is more modelled on servant leadership and more driven by achieving consensus, and that’s what I brought culturally to the government.
“That’s what leant itself to everyone feeling much more engaged.”
His first order of business was selecting a new ministry to help rebrand his government, bringing in fresh MPs Meaghan Scanlon, Bart Mellish, Nikki Boyd, Charis Mullen and Michael Healy.
“I think the unity of our government is a pretty extraordinary thing,” he said.
“There’s been times when you could have rightly expected that unity to break in tough times, but at the end of the day, we’re actually really close people.”
The Premier has leaned into his suburban dad image, successfully using social media to engage with Queenslanders.
His campaign is heavily weighted on cost-of-living relief, including his proudest policy proposals – 50c public transport fares and free school lunches for state primary school students.
In his final pitch to voters, he has asked Queenslanders to reflect on his 10 months in office and give him a mandate in his own right.
“It would mean I could do those like the things we’ve announced in this campaign, things I thought were too big to do without a mandate,” he said. “School lunches in particular is a thing I’m really passionate about and wanted to do for a really longtime, in the same way as 50c fares will be a legacy.”
While he has bested Opposition Leader David Crisafulli as preferred premier off the back of a successful campaign, the LNP remains tipped to win the election.
But Mr Miles remains determined to form a majority government and see his colleagues retain their seats, telling voters his plan to reduce cost of living, bring down crime rates and improve health care and housing is working.
“Now is not the time to throw those plans out,” he said.
He hit out at Mr Crisafulli for dodging journalists’ questions throughout the campaign and painted himself as an honest leader who had been upfront about what he stands for, particularly when it came to abortion rights.
“It’s me that you know,” he said. “If you can’t be sure (of the LNP) then you need to vote Labor.”
If Queenslanders do decide to keep Mr Miles in the top job, he will finally move into his office on Sunday.
“I haven’t properly unpacked my boxes in the Premier’s office, or moved into the Premier’s office of Parliament House,” he said.
“I always saw it as really important to get there in my own right, and that’s what I have a chance to do today.”
Originally published as ‘You know me’: Steven Miles urges voters to trust him to lead Qld
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