Deputy Premier says byelection result shows voters rejected Steven Miles and Labor Party
The deputy prime minister took shots at Steven Miles after suggesting the Labor leader could be stabbed by his own party after a by-election in Hinchinbrook at the weekend.
LNP candidate Wayde Chiesa won the northern seat with 17 per cent of the vote following the resignation of Katter’s Australian Party MP and current Townsville mayor Nick Dametto.
Labor received just 8 per cent of the vote, a decline of 6 per cent.
“Don’t get me wrong, this is a bad result for Steven Miles,” Jarrod Bleijie said in Parliament House on Monday morning.
“Regional Queensland rejected Stephen Miles yesterday. Regional Queensland rejected Labor yesterday.
“We know that this is the season of death in politics.”
Labor was never likely to win the seat, which lies in the northern part of Townsville and large conservative rural areas, and the election was effectively a two-way race between the LNP and Katter’s Australian Party.
The Labor leader downplayed the results at the weekend, saying they reflected long-term trends, but conceded his team had work to do.
“It reinforces what I’ve been saying… Labor needs to ensure that we develop policies that work for us across the state,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Labor Party conference at the weekend.
“Obviously we’re not done doing this yet.”
Bleijie said the result showed voters supported the LNP platform and punished Labor for its policy positions and perceived division in areas such as youth crime and the CFMEU.
“This is clearly a divided opposition… They’re not thinking about Queenslanders,” he added.
“All they think about is politics and Steven Miles is responsible for that.
“I have been saying for a long time that he is unfit for the job of prime minister and he is certainly unfit for the job of leader of the opposition.”
Rumors that Miles could be replaced as leader of the Labor Party in Queensland have been circulating for some time, but no one has publicly broken ranks with the former premier.
