EDITORIAL: Desperate Steven Miles clings to power for power’s sake

After a brief stop-off at denial, Steven Miles has blown straight past anger and got himself stuck in the bargaining stage of grieving over his imminent political demise.

Queenslanders are waiting, baseball bats in hand, to give Mr Miles’ Labor party an almighty whack later this month.

Dire predictions of enormous swings in the regions and Brisbane’s outer suburbia could produce a nightmare scenario in which both the Premier and his potential successor Shannon Fentiman lose their seats.

Mr Miles knows this. And he’s desperate enough to pull out whatever cynical trick he can to prevent the worst of the damage.

Dirt cheap public transport fares.

A whopping $1000 toward each household’s energy bills.

A frankly bizarre plan to open 12 State-owned petrol stations to compete with commercial operators.

This month, just a few weeks before the election came Mr Miles’ promise — apparently conjured out of thin air — to set up a new publicly-owned energy retailer, almost two decades after former Labor premier Peter Beattie privatised large parts of the system.

Mr Miles is spraying taxpayer money at anything he believes might possibly convince voters to keep him on a bit longer.

Queenslanders will gladly take the 50c train fares and the electricity subsidies.

But they’re still coming for Labor.

They can see Mr Miles’ election pledges for what they are — a cynical ploy to stay in power for power’s sake.

In doing so, he’s only digging his hole deeper with voters who find the whole thing a bit of an ick.

Mr Miles owes his job as Premier to the same cynical political desperation he is now exhibiting. That’s what led Labor to prod the party’s long-time leader, the electorally-successful Annastacia Palaszczuk into forced retirement late last year.

So overpowering is Mr Miles’ desperation to cling onto power that if a strong northerly blows, the stink of it is carried all the way to Canberra and the other State capitals.

Anthony Albanese has shut the windows, lest the stench from Queensland permeate through his Zegna suits.

He has spent much of this week in Laos for the ASEAN summit, giving him a credible excuse to skip this weekend’s campaign launch in Brisbane.

Mr Albanese’s reluctance to be associated with the slow-moving train wreck unfolding in the north is understandable. He’s likely hoping that irate Queenslanders take the opportunity to vent their frustrations at the Miles’ Government, giving them the time to cool down once his own day of reckoning comes around in the first half of next year.

But he would be foolish to look away.

The Queensland example is a powerful lesson in what can happen when an administration prioritises its own survival over the best interests of voters and reinforces the disconnect between our professional political class and Middle Australia.

They are lessons Mr Miles will likely have plenty of time to reflect on, when he finally reaches acceptance.