Queensland Premier Steven Miles has committed to visiting 36 seats in just 36 hours of campaigning, just before voters go to the polls this Saturday.
It is an appropriately superficial and empty gesture to end what has been a fairly lackluster campaign by the two main party leaders.
Today’s Newspoll reveals the gap between Labor and the LNP has closed, but the opposition should still claim a disappointing victory.
The possibility of a minority government still hangs in the air.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles has committed to visiting 36 seats in just 36 hours of campaigning, just before voters go to the polls this Saturday. He started the tour with a walk on the beach with his wife Kim.
By promising to spread himself so thin in the final days of the campaign, the Prime Minister is engaging in a form of performance art that clearly underlines his less than 11 months in the top job.
I don’t know why this last trick surprises me. Last week he posted a bench press challenge video on social media.
Miles, the choice of factions and unions to succeed Annastacia Palaszczuk, has not set the world on fire as prime minister.
Prepared to execute a fiscally irresponsible agenda, as outlined by none other than the Reserve Bank, Miles hopes to pick up enough marginal seats to win with less than 50 per cent of the two-party vote across the state.
There remains a slim chance of that happening, despite his clownish gesture of spending less than an hour in three dozen different 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 before the 2010 election.
Fortunately he did not win, otherwise the new prime minister would have had to sleep during his first days in office to recover from lack of sleep.
That Miles decided to emulate Abbott says it all. Labor MPs of the time ridiculed Abbott’s antics.
Now one of his most senior state politicians is following Abbott’s lead.
Steven Miles can bench press two hundred pounds, 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.
Not that LNP opposition leader David Crisafulli has been particularly impressive in attempting to walk both sides of the street on most political issues.
Anthony Albanese is quietly hoping Queensland voters will take out their anger on the state party before his federal team goes to the polls early next year.
The cost of living is by far the number one issue on voters’ minds. It is undoubtedly the reason why the Miles government has promised all kinds of handouts in an attempt to buy votes, despite the inflationary pressure this causes.
And cost-of-living issues certainly cut across both federal and state politics.
The problem for Albo is that Queenslanders have recorded higher approval ratings for the Prime Minister than for the Prime Minister, according to recent opinion polls.
That suggests whatever the outcome of the state election, Queenslanders will look to the premier in due course.
Labor does not have many federal seats in Queensland, but would like to pick up some to offset expected losses in other parts of the country.