It was a policy calculated to make a splash.
The Queensland Labor premier’s first major election promise – 12 “state-owned servos” – raised comparisons with eastern European regimes of the cold war. The Liberal National party, which opposed it, said it was the worst idea they’d ever heard of.
It was also something Steven Miles’ predecessor, Annastacia Palaszczuk, would never have done.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, the Labor left-faction premier conceded his style is “very different” from that of his former boss.
Now in his seventh month in the top job, and less than three months out from an election, Miles signalled he would jettison Palaszczuk’s cautious campaigning style for a more unorthodox approach.
“What’s clear is that I’m very different, and that’s not a criticism of anyone else,” he said.
Miles said his approach to solving problems is that “nothing’s off the table when it comes to identifying possible solutions”.
“Where we see a problem, we try to find a way to fix it. And there isn’t always a way, but if there is a way, then we’ll run at it,” he said.
In a keynote speech at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia’s state of the state lunch – where he announced the publicly owned petrol stations plan – he declared the party would bring an “unashamedly ambitious” agenda to the voters on polling day.
Since day one, the word that has followed the Miles government around is “ambition”.
Longstanding policy priorities of the Labor base and supporter groups – a carbon reduction target, a ban on gas development in western Queensland – have finally found a place on the parliamentary agenda. They’ve permitted drug testing for the first time. They decriminalised sex work, a reform left over from four Labor premiers ago. All this while replanning the Olympics.
Meanwhile, Labor has aimed directly at the hip pocket, promising and implementing legislation for universal $1,000 energy rebates and cuts to car registration, rates and charges and more.
On Monday, the government slashed fares for the train and bus to just 50 cents, by far the cheapest in the country.
Miles’ staff say that many of these brainwaves – and the populist strategies used to sell them – come from the boss.
It’s said that the pull-up banners behind every Labor minister at every Labor press conference were his idea. No matter the audio in the TV report, every image tells you you’re saving money during a cost of living crisis, and exactly how much.
They added a new slogan this week: “Driving down fuel prices.”
The RACQ, who came up with the bulk of the policy, wanted to smooth out the fuel cycle, the 38-day rise and fall of prices that leaves many paying above market rates for petrol. It said that Brisbane motorists pay the highest prices in the country because of a lack of competition by stations owned independently, rather than by a chain.
The government’s response: along with a cap on rises to once a day, by just five cents, with a day’s notice, the government would also set up a dozen of its own service stations.
For Australian Catholic University historian Jon Piccini, it raised comparisons with the old radicals of the party, TJ Ryan and “Red Ted” Theodore, who established a network of government butchers and other state-owned enterprises to increase competition and reduce profiteering.
In an interview, Miles rejected the socialist label, but welcomed the comparison.
“Those were governments that intervened to address the problems of today. That’s what we are too,” he said.
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Piccini said today’s shocks aren’t so different from the postwar, post-Spanish flu period.
“You saw, interestingly, real fears about price gouging. You saw big increases in inflation because the war ended, people were moving around a lot more, there was a lot more money flowing through the economy, but there weren’t as many goods around,” he said.
“So you saw increasing claims of profiteering.”
‘I’m not about to die wondering’
The Labor leader – who has often used a big speech to announce big plans – has another three major keynote speeches lined up before election day on 26 October, on energy, healthcare, and “lifestyle”, which also includes the environment. Miles said they would all be made in the same tone of ambition.
But that won’t mean an adoption of rent controls, as pushed by left rivals the Greens, he said. It also won’t mean a massive build-out of new public housing, as implemented by Labor governments of the 1940s and 50s.
The government is hyperactive because Labor needs to win votes. Miles long ago admitted he was the “underdog” premier and the polls have the party facing a stomping.
Griffith University political scientist Paul Williams said if voters walk into booths in October thinking it’s time for a change, that’s exactly what will happen.
He also pointed out that Queensland once had an eight cents a litre subsidy for petrol. The state has never been particularly concerned about words like “socialist”.
“I call it pragmatism. And if it means taking shortcuts, so be it,” he said.
“People want dams built, schools built, hospitals built, and roads laid. And by golly, we’ve got to do it. And Miles is kind of doing that.”
Williams predicted the government would continue to search for some way to wedge the opposition.
“It’s all kitchen sink politics. Throw everything and the kitchen sink at it, including going back on principle, things like, we’re removing jail as a last resort for young offenders,” he said.
Miles finished this week’s state of the state speech by guaranteeing the audience two things:
“One, nobody will ever call me a small target,” he said.
“Two, I’m not about to die wondering!”
The premier is not planning to leave anything in the tank.