Qld election 2024 leaders debate LIVE updates: Steven Miles, David Crisafulli go head-to-head | Leaders quizzed on cost-of-living, youth crime and health

Thanks for joining us tonight for live coverage of this first leaders debate.

Miles and Crisafulli were both asked tough questions about some of the big issues of this campaign so far – including crime, the cost of living, housing, health and the Olympics – but we know there’s lots of other questions on Queenslanders’ minds too.

Send us a message to tell us what you think the leaders should be asked about over the next few weeks as we head towards October 26.

And we’ll be back with live coverage of the day’s news, including day four of the election campaign, tomorrow morning. See you then!

The ghost of Campbell Newman has been haunting Queensland state politics since he stepped out of City Hall and walked down George Street, but tonight there was briefly some confusion over whether he did, or did not, weigh in on Steven Miles’ performance.

Following The Great Debate between Premier Miles and opposition leader David Crisafulli, Nine state political reporter Tim Arvier read out a text on live TV he said was from former LNP premier Campbell Newman which read: “The Premier smashed it.”

A short time later, Arvier confirmed it was not THE Campbell, but a different one.

However, the real Campbell Newman does also apparently think Miles did a good job.

BT editor Sean Parnell says how people cast their vote on October 26 is completely up to them. He thought Premier Steven Miles at times seemed quite frustrated, whereas opposition leader David Crisafulli seemed too scripted.

But he thought tonight’s debate landed some blows on Crisafulli, including the areas where he did not have a plan and had to make a commitment tonight.

“I think, long-term, David Crisafulli lost,” Parnell said.

David Crisafulli and Steven Miles.Credit: Dan Peled / Brisbane Times

The other two panellists had a different perspective.

4BC’s Sofie Formica said she didn’t want to be a fence sitter. She said Crisafulli tended to have slogans in his back pocket and was well-prepared, but there was still detail missing.

“I’d lean on the side of, it’s time for some change,” Formica said, saying she believed Crisafulli won the debate.

Nine News state political reporter Tim Arvier has pointed to the bookmakers’ odds, which point to a LNP victory, and said Miles had “a lot more work here to do”.

Arvier says he thinks Crisafulli won.

But Arvier said his phone was lighting up with text messages, while many said they believed Miles had won and they were surprised by his performance.

Our panel has weighed in on how Premier Steven Miles and opposition leader David Crisafulli performed in Nine’s The Great Debate.

BT editor Sean Parnell says both leaders were trying to achieve “something quite different”.

Parnell says Crisafulli was trying to show voters he had a plan, he had done his homework and “he’s ready”.

He says Steven Miles was trying to show everyone that government is actually quite hard, and under the circumstances, Labor has done it well.

Sofie Formica, from 4BC, was most interested in their different responses on youth crime.

Nine’s Tim Arvier says Crisafulli’s promises on reducing crime was a key moment.

He says Crisafulli wants to show he’ll do something on crime and that covers some of the things he didn’t talk about, like energy and his health plan.

We couldn’t type fast enough to get all the answers to the lightning round of questions, which included “What is your most impressive sporting feat?” and “Is Queensland the best state in Australia?”

Neither had a good answer for what they’d do if they were not in politics.

BT editor Sean Parnell says he hates the phrase “comprehensive plan” (and I’ve just made a personal note to mention my comprehensive plan for better biscuits in the BT office at our next news conference).

Anyway, Parnell has asked opposition leader David Crisafulli about his comprehensive plan for a 100-day review of Olympics venues.

Parnell asks Crisafulli whether he’s asking Queenslanders to accept he doesn’t have a firm view on what he wants delivered.

Crisafulli says Queenslanders are embarrassed about the planning that’s happened for the Olympics so far.

The leaders have been asked about political scare campaigns.

Steven Miles says “sometimes scare campaigns can be true”.

“There are many people who still approach me in the street and say ‘I got Newman-ed’,” he said, in reference to the public servants sacked during Campbell Newman’s years as premier.

David Crisafulli, who earlier spent some time talking about his family’s sugar farm, says the scare campaigns had been “disappointing”.

Crisafulli said a number of things that were being said were categorically untrue and divisive.

“I’m going to choose hope over fear,” Crisafulli said, prompting Miles to express some doubt about that.

Sofie Formica has asked Steven Miles if he’s a better premier than Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Miles says he knows he’s a “very different kind of leader” and Queenslanders would have a chance to judge that on October 26.

Formica has followed up to say Palaszczuk was pushed out amid disastrous polling. If Miles wasn’t better, what does that say to Queenslanders?

“I spent 10 months showing Queenslanders the kind of premier I would be if I had the chance to lead for four years,” Miles said.

“There is a difference between being a member of a team and being the leader, being the premier.”

Opposition leader David Crisafulli says the Australian Medical Association says the patient tax “which comes in after the election” and will generate $100 million per year will result in the “death of bulk billing”, close surgeries and put more pressure on hospitals.

Steven Miles says there’s “no such thing as a patient tax”.

“It’s something that you’ve made up,” he says.