Almost 20 years ago, the then federal Labor leader, Mark Latham, found himself in the crosshairs of a young upstart union official named Steven Miles during a “politics at the pub” event in Brisbane. The pair clashed over Labor values. Afterwards, Latham approached Miles and offered him a job.
“You’re a smart kid, you should come and work for me in Canberra,” Latham said, according to people who were there.
The headstrong Miles, then in his mid-20s, gave the job offer short shrift, reportedly providing Latham with a profanity-laced character assessment in the process. (Latham says he has no recollection of ever meeting Miles.)
On Friday, Steven John Miles, 46, was elected the Queensland Labor leader and became the state’s 40th premier.
Political opponents have portrayed the new premier as being “utterly owned” by backroom interests, after the influential United Workers Union struck a deal to deliver Miles the numbers.
The irony is that the younger Miles, who berated the former federal leader, often scrapped against the Labor party machine. His ambition to enter parliament – so strong he moved his family across Brisbane to seek preselection – was repeatedly thwarted by factional deals.
“He learned some hard lessons in that process,” a Labor figure told Guardian Australia.
“The concept in terms of him having got things easily is not right.”
Listen closely
Annastacia Palaszczuk announced her retirement on Sunday; by Tuesday morning Miles had secured a large majority in the Labor caucus and became the premier-in-waiting.
But history might not properly reflect the collective moment of hesitation among MPs who wondered aloud whether Miles would wash with the public, particularly in the more conservative parts of regional Queensland.
At press conferences this week, Miles has at times appeared nervous, wooden and defensive.
“Steven is not a natural politician in terms of the glad-handling retail type,” says Alex Scott, the head of the Together union and a longtime friend of the new premier.
“Media performance is not his strength. But he’s got a high intellect and he gets recognition over time for strong work ethic and great output.
“His strength is he listens to people and is able to work on their concerns.”
Scott says he headhunted Miles to work for the old Queensland Public Sector Union in the late 1990s. The pair have remained close; Miles was in Scott’s wedding party.
“The reason he probably got the cross-factional support in caucus was how he delivered in terms of Covid,” Scott says.
“The premier was great, but behind the scenes, the respect [Miles] achieved was because of his ability to work with people. He pushed through the legislation about the health emergency.”
On the attack
The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, told the Australian Financial Review that when Miles was health minister “you could get him on the phone any time day or night”.
“He would answer during meetings – we were in Opposition then – and we were very grateful.”
During Covid, when he was elevated to deputy premier, Miles became the government’s attack dog. He fired back at Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton, Qantas boss Allan Joyce – anyone who sought to publicly criticise Queensland’s strict border closures.
He appeared to call Morrison a “cunt” at a Labour Day speech, but claimed it was a slip of the tongue. He delivered a memorable speech to parliament in which he repeatedly reminded the former federal LNP MP George Christensen – who was promoting the horse dewormer ivermectin to treat Covid – that he was “indeed not a horse”.
“I have heard that he likes the whip,” Miles said, grinning from ear to ear
Scott says he thinks Miles’ inclination is to come out fighting “in defence of his friends” rather than having a natural desire to be an attack dog. He might not be as abrupt as premier.
“It’s issues of substance where he’s going to have it all over them.”
Climate agenda
Miles’ first act as premier was to announce that Queensland would overhaul its lagging emissions reductions targets, and legislate for a 75% cut on 2005 levels by 2035. In a state where climate and coal have long been fraught conversations, some eyebrows were raised when the move was announced on day one.
Colleagues say Miles’ “life was changed” when, in 2007, he attended the former US president Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project leadership program. The environment became a core concern; when Miles entered parliament, part of the large new cohort thrust unexpectedly into government after the 2015 election, he immediately became the minister for the environment and the Great Barrier Reef.
15 years ago you inspired me @algore to do more to address climate change. Thank you for all your advice and support since then. I’m really proud of what we have achieved in Queensland and of our Energy and Jobs Plan. Here’s a photo of us both looking much younger to celebrate. https://t.co/DCmsY7weTU pic.twitter.com/XyGQ0pD8Bc
— Steven Miles (@StevenJMiles) October 3, 2022
The Climate Reality Project published a profile of Miles last year: “In a very conservative state home to over 50 major coalmines, he is one of the very ministers to hold the line on climate change and continue to advocate for solutions within the Queensland government.”
Miles has long had good relationships with environment groups. Ellen Roberts, who in 2015 worked with the Mackay Conservation Group and later GetUp, said Miles clearly held “strong environmental values”.
“The challenge was working with the rest of the government on these issues,” Roberts said.
“Miles wanted to be accessible and keep people abreast of what was going on, which we always appreciated.
“I think achieving change proved to be very difficult for him and others throughout the Palaszczuk government. They’ve got such a long way to go on the basics. Those challenges are still going to be there with him as premier.”
Electorally, putting the environment front and centre is “a massive risk” in parts of regional Queensland, says Dr Maxine Newlands, a political scientist who worked in Townsville for almost a decade.
Newlands says many voters in Townsville and other parts of north Queensland, where there are several key seats, view the environment as a secondary issue to the cost of living and crime.
On Wednesday, as Miles faced questions about his imminent leadership from the government offices in Brisbane, the opposition leader, David Crisafulli, flew to Townsville and held a press conference on a busy city street.
“Crisafulli is really playing to the fact he’s from Townsville, knows the area, talks the Townsville talk,” Newlands says. “The narrative has been around crime and the cost of living. And that’s working.”
In his speech on Friday, Miles said he wanted to be a premier that “unites the city and the bush”, particularly around opportunities from the global energy transition.
“The things we make in our regions and sell to the world must be made with an eye to how the world wants them,” he said.
“That is why responsible emissions targets are essential to jobs in our existing industries like mining, agriculture and manufacturing … and it is the key to creating more jobs in the new industries of the future.”
The kid from Pine Rivers
This week, as the premier-in-waiting, Miles spoke about growing up in Pine Rivers, the son of a working-class family, whose father worked at the Golden Circle cannery.
As a teenager, Miles was in the army cadets and had considered attending the Australian Defence Force Academy before winning a scholarship to the University of Queensland. In a speech to parliament in 2015, Miles said the UQ St Lucia campus was “his spiritual home”, having completed a PhD about trade union membership renewal in 2011.
In 2009, Miles stood for preselection in Pine Rivers, the area north of Brisbane where he grew up. He was, sources say, “done over” by Bill Ludwig, the right faction powerbroker.
Miles then shifted his allegiance to the left, and attempted to run in the seat of Everton. But he again lost a preselection bid to Murray Watt, now the federal agriculture minister, who had the backing of several left unions. In 2010 he was Labor’s losing candidate for the Liberal-held federal seat of Ryan.
When he was elected to parliament in 2015, it was in the inner-west seat of Mt Coot-tha. In 2017, after his seat was abolished in a redistribution, he moved to the much safer northern seat of Murrumba, where he lives in Mango Hill with his wife and three children.
“People don’t realise he’s a Pine Rivers kid whose gone back to Pine Rivers, as opposed to the alternative,” Scott says.
“He’s not part of the Brisbane elite. He’s part of the forgotten suburbs of Brisbane. His strength is he listens to people and is able to work on their concerns. He’ll be far more in touch with regional Queensland and make sure his government will be doing all he can.
“But he also won’t walk away from the climate conversation.”
As a new premier, Miles will have to fight these competing narratives. Is he a union puppet or a brash party outsider? A boy from struggle street or the halls of a sandstone university? A government attack dog or a leader who can bring the state together?
One thing is very clear: Miles is a massive Brisbane Broncos fan. The “nightmare scenario” for him, Scott says, is if the Broncos end up in a grand final against the North Queensland Cowboys about a month before the state election.
“He’ll be challenged if that becomes an issue.”
