Queensland Premier Steven Miles has pledged to visit 36 seats in just 36 hours of campaigning right before voters head to the polls this Saturday.
It is an appropriately superficial and vacuous gesture to end what has been a pretty lacklustre campaign by both major party leaders.
Today’s Newspoll reveals that the gap between Labor and the LNP has closed, but the opposition should still eke out an underwhelming victory.
The possibility of minority government still hangs in the air.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles has pledged to visit 36 seats in just 36 hours of campaigning right before voters head to the polls this Saturday. He kicked off the tour with a beach walk with his wife Kim
By promising to spread himself so thinly in the final days of the campaign, the Premier is engaging in a form of performance art that neatly surmises his less than 11 months in the top job.
I don’t know why I’m surprised by this latest gimmick. Last week he posted a bench press challenge video on social media.
The factional and union pick to succeed Annastacia Palaszczuk, Miles hasn’t exactly set the world on fire as Premier.
Prepared to run a fiscally irresponsible agenda, as called out by the Reserve Bank, no less, Miles hopes to sandbag enough marginal seats to win with less than 50 per cent of the state wide two party vote.
There remains an outside chance of that happening, despite his clown-like gesture to spend less than an hour in three dozen separate electorates in the final day and a half of the campaign.
The stunt reminds me of Tony Abbott’s equally ridiculous decision to campaign for 48 hours straight ahead of the 2010 election.
Fortunately he didn’t win, otherwise the new PM would have had to sleep his way through his first few days in the job to recover from his sleep deprivation.
That Miles has decided to emulate Abbott says it all really. Labor MPs at the time ridiculed Abbott’s antics.
Now one of their most senior state politicians is following Abbott’s example.
Steven Miles can bench press a hundred kilos – but can he push David Crisafulli out of the way?
If it works, Queensland voters will get what they deserve: a fourth Labor term in power.
It’s not as though LNP opposition leader David Crisafulli has been particularly impressive as he attempts to walk both sides of the street on most political issues.
Anthony Albanese quietly hopes voters in Queensland take out their anger on the state party before his federal team heads to the polls early next year.
Cost of living is far and away the number one issue on voters’ minds. No doubt it is the reason the Miles government has promised all manner of handouts in an attempt to buy votes, despite the inflationary pressure doing so causes.
And cost of living issues certainly traverse federal politics as well as state.
The problem for Albo is that Queenslanders have registered higher approval ratings for the Premier than the PM according to recent opinion polls.
That suggests whatever the result of the state election, Queenslanders will be gunning for the PM in due course.
Labor doesn’t hold many federal seats in Queensland, but it would like to pick a few up to offset expected loses elsewhere around the country.
