Miles polling shock
Premier aids Labor revival
Steven Miles has dragged Labor back from the electoral wipe-out predicted during Annastacia Palaszczuk’s horror final year as premier, with new polling showing the two major parties tied.
UComms polling of 1700 Queenslanders on February 13, commissioned exclusively by The Courier-Mail, shows Labor and the LNP tied on a 50-50 two-party-preferred vote ahead of the October 26 state election.
It is the first time the parties are locked at 50-50 since December 2022, before Ms Palaszczuk in her final year as premier suffered declining approval ratings as integrity, crime, housing and health issues mounted. Labor officially endorsed Mr Miles as leader, and premier, on December 15.
UComms polling in the days after the leadership change revealed it had paid immediate dividends for Labor with the two-party gap narrowing to 51-49 in favour of the LNP.
The poll reveals Labor’s primary vote remains unchanged at 30.4 per cent compared to late December.
The LNP’s primary vote has fallen 2.4 per cent to 33.8 per cent, with most voters becoming undecided.
Of the 12.5 per cent undecided voters, 30.5 per cent say they had a “slight leaning” to Labor while 28 per cent say they are likely to favour the LNP. Mr Miles has also closed the gap to Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, whose 52.2 to 47.8 preferred-premier margin in December has been eroded to 51-49. The premier is narrowly favoured by southeast residents, but Mr Crisafulli leads Mr Miles 55.5 to 44.5 per cent in regional Queensland.
Mr Miles is also being seen in a “positive” light by 44.2 per cent of voters, up from 42.7 per cent in December.
Queenslanders’ opinion of Mr Crisafulli is also growing, however, with 41.7 per cent seeing him in a positive way compared to 37.8 per cent in December.
Almost 9 per cent say, however, they have “never heard of him” compared to just 0.7 per cent of Queenslanders who haven’t heard about Mr Miles.
One respondent labelled Mr Miles “relatively more honest than most politicians; willing to listen and willing to take action”, however another said he was “out of his depth, not tough enough and weak”.
Union involvement in Mr Miles’s premiership was also a key theme of respondents.
Mr Crisafulli was seen by one respondent to seem to have “a good grasp on the issues facing Queensland”, but others described him as an “opportunist”, lightweight and “a bit soft”. Men prefer Mr Crisafulli while women prefer Mr Miles – both with a split of about 5 per cent.
The two parties are stronger in southeast Queensland compared to the regions, with Labor’s city vote at 31.6 per cent while the LNP is at 34 per cent.
In regional Queensland the LNP’s 33 per cent vote leads Labor’s 27.4 per cent.
The Greens’ primary vote has fallen half-a-point to 11.3 per cent.