Queensland Labor Premier Steven Miles says he is ‘excited’ now that the gates have been thrown open on the state election which will come to a head on October 26.

‘Queensland election campaigns are unlike anything else, and I can’t wait to get into it!’

The man who took an 11-minute private jet trip to a birthday party has attempted to scrub away those awkward carbon units and restore his ‘man of the people’ image by taking a 50c public bus ride to the Governor’s residence.

The stunt designed to promote Labor’s bribery – sorry – policy to reduce public transport costs during a self-inflicted cost of living crisis will be short-lived. The Premier, along with the rest of his peers, are expected to spend a sizeable chunk of the campaign on planes or chauffeured around in cars. Not riding 50c buses.

Mr Miles says he is seeking a ‘first term’ as Queensland’s Premier, despite already holding the role since inheriting it from Annastacia Palaszczuk in December 2023. Before that, he was Deputy Premier from May 10, 2020.

‘I want four years in my own right to deliver on the kinds of policies, the vision, that I have for our state. I’ve had an opportunity to audition for the job to show Queenslanders what I would be like, and what I’m asking for on the 26th of October, is a mandate in my own right.’

Audition? Mandate? Queensland voters could have sworn they were paying Mr Miles to hold the role of Premier in its full capacity.

And if he was only auditioning, what would Mr Miles have done differently during the last year as puppet premier or the years before that as deputy? Which parts of Labor’s leadership does Mr Miles think he can improve on when elected in his own right? After all, his words have implied that he is a chick seeking to hatch from its oppressive shell. What will be different this time? What will Labor do now for Queensland that they have not managed to do since 2015?

It is the Kamala Problem… A person in a position of power pretending that if they are elected back into the power they already hold, they will fix all the problems they created with their current power.

Mr Miles has expressed a desire to stand on the strength of his ‘audition’, in which case the critical reviews coming out of Queensland are that it has been an unflattering performance.

The merit of Labor’s leadership sits as a pile of burned-out cars, knives, drugs, and broken families.

Labor are staring down disaster. To win, all the Opposition has to do is stand there looking sane, safe, and thrifty. Remember, Labor are scorned around the world for their inability to define gender and abandonment of protected women’s spaces. The Miles ‘I was only auditioning’ government perches at the cutting edge of eroding women’s rights.

Roughly half of Queensland voters are women, how many will vote for Mr Miles after being called a chest-feeder at the local hospital?

The word “woman” is being removed from a Queensland state abortion act.

Congratulations, dickheads. By taking women out of the equation, you’re one step closer to “a woman’s right to choose” being a men’s rights issue. pic.twitter.com/oSWigZffPV

— Sall Grover (@salltweets) November 30, 2023

Arguably the biggest voting issue is crime. There is too much of it. The laid back state has become a war zone with families put on the front line. Their homes are raided. Their cars are stolen. Shopping centres are surrounded by gangs. Labor’s soft touch on crime has created hard times for law-abiding citizens who are, rightly, fed up. It was not so long ago that we saw concerns about law and order hand the Northern Territory over to the Country Liberals after Territorians decided they could take no more of Labor’s empty words.

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli is capitalising on this.

A few hours ago, he tweeted:

‘We’ve got a plan to prevent crime before it happens. We’re proud to announce our Secure Communities Partnership Program that will provide grants to small businesses and community facilities to upgrade their security. Only the LNP has a plan to restore safety where you live.’

The $100 million intervention fund is targeted at the youth crime crisis which involves break and enters, car theft, and drug abuse. $50 million is being spent on existing programs and community ventures already working to improve the situation, while the rest is meant to bring new ideas and projects into Queensland.

The Leader of the Opposition has also reached out to former police officers, inviting them back into the force if they wish to return. A sizeable chunk of the comments on that particular announcement have called for Mr Crisafulli to offer an olive branch to the officers who were sacked under the Covid mandates.

Queensland needs a fresh start. pic.twitter.com/3q8SEboyqE

— David Crisafulli (@DavidCrisafulli) October 1, 2024

Kudos to Mr Crisafulli for also supporting genuine environmental causes and conservation work – no, not those skyscaper-sized machetes government-backed companies keep planting in the rainforest – I mean the Turtle Rehabilitation Centre on Green Island and a new wildlife hospital for the Moreton Bay Region.

We’re proud to announce our plan for a new Turtle Rehabilitation Centre on Green Island. pic.twitter.com/felbl0HuIY

— David Crisafulli (@DavidCrisafulli) September 30, 2024

This type of environmentalism is far more palatable than the cultish climate rhetoric which voters are increasingly associating with their hefty energy bills.

The big question this time around is, how will rural and regional voters lean come election day now that the ‘Powering Queensland’ renewable energy plan is underway? What was once a green aspiration has become a nightmarish reality for many with huge tracts of forests and farmland in the path of transmission lines.

Not only did Queensland Labor announce in 2022 new commitments to make the Queensland grid 70 per cent renewable by 2032 and 80 per cent by 2035, in 2024, the Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Act enshrined three renewable targets into law.

In effect, private property rights and the protection of Queensland’s natural landscapes are now at odds with green law.

Minor parties are doing well in this space, having maintained their ideological integrity from the start. When a party such as One Nation says they oppose tearing up forest for turbines, people believe them. When wind farms start popping up along Queensland’s beautiful beaches, we can expect voters to leak out of the major parties. There are no government hand-outs sufficient to close people’s eyes to the destruction of their favourite landscapes.

Today, Queensland has entered caretaker mode ahead of the state election on Saturday, 26 October 2024.

Now is the time to make sure you know how to make your vote count!

Please watch this video from my Please Explain team to learn how to vote in Queensland so your vote is… pic.twitter.com/2Zg3jqmBXW

— Pauline Hanson ?? (@PaulineHansonOz) September 30, 2024

Regional voters have other concerns too, such as the safety of their roads and the neglect shown to rural infrastructure from successive governments that spend all their time chasing lucrative city electorates.

It’s this dynamic that makes the Premier’s decision to take a private jet all the more insulting, given he claims it was to ‘avoid the notoriously dangerous Bruce Highway’ and that the decision was ‘entirely appropriate’.

A shame, I’m sure, that the average Queenslander can’t do the same. All we can do now is await the final act.