CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
With his back against the wall and staring down a coordinated media campaign to end his government, Queensland Premier Steven Miles can do nothing but continue to announce policies that help people in a cost-of-living crisis.
The Premier’s defiant optimism and ambitious plans are infuriating his LNP Opposition, who had been promised an election landslide by the Newscorp propaganda machine and the union-busters at Channel Nine.
What is even more annoying for the conservatives, is that his seemingly expensive approach to social policy has been completely budgeted for, because the state is making a lot of money by placing a royalties tax on all of the resources that multinational mining corporations dig out of the Queensland soil.
While the LNP would prefer that these mining giants go about their business without having to pay a cent, or give anything back except for a few board positions to retiring MPs, they are also infuriated by the fact Queensland voters seem to respond well to progressive policies that aim to make their lives better.
Things have been getting worse for the LNP every day the election edges closer. Last week, the Katters threw frag grenade into their laps by demanding they publicly declare whether or not they support a ban on abortions. With a party stacked with evangelical fundamentalists, the LNP were not able to say no.
The LNP’s lack of costings are also proving to be a point of frustration in their bradbury campaign to victory, while Labor have the luxury of announcing heaps of cool shit that the billion mining bosses will no have to pay for – like they would have to in any other developed nation.
But yesterday the temperature got turned up even higher. Premier Miles has promised to provide free lunches to primary school children if re-elected at a cost of $350 million a year.
In a state plagued by exaggerated rates of youth crime and delinquency, a full belly of good tucker may just be antidote to poverty-stricken children breaking into houses and cars to steal shiny things.
Today, the AFR and Courier Mail have described this ground-breaking social policy as ‘a vote grab from an embattled government’.
