Steven Miles (politician)
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Steven John Miles (born 15 November 1977) is an Australian politician who was the 40th
premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is appointed ...
, in office for 10 months from 2023 to 2024. He is the state leader of the
Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
(ALP) and previously served as deputy premier from 2020 to 2023. Miles was born in Brisbane and completed a PhD on the trade union movement at the
University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...
. Prior to entering parliament he worked as a union official, political adviser, and public relations consultant. He was elected to
parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
at the 2015 Queensland state election, initially representing the seat of Mount Coot-tha before switching to Murrumba at the 2017 election. Miles was appointed to state cabinet after the 2015 election victory and replaced Jackie Trad as
Annastacia Palaszczuk Annastacia Palaszczuk ( , born 25 July 1969) is an Australian politician who served as the 39th premier of Queensland from 2015 to 2023. She held office as the leader of the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2012 unt ...
's deputy in 2020. He succeeded Palaszcuk as ALP leader and premier unopposed following her retirement in December 2023. Miles led his government into the 2024 state election in an attempt to win a fourth-consecutive term for the
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
party but was defeated by the opposition Liberal National Party led by
David Crisafulli David Frank Crisafulli (; born 14 April 1979) is an Australian politician currently serving as the 41st Premier of Queensland since 28 October 2024 and leader of the Liberal National Party (LNP) since 12 November 2020. He has been the member ...
.


Early life

Miles was born in
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
in 1977. His father worked as a fitter at the Golden Circle cannery at Northgate and his mother was a workplace health and safety inspector. He attended Petrie State School and completed his secondary education at St Paul's Anglican School, Bald Hills. He went on to complete the degrees of Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the
University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...
. Miles' PhD thesis was titled "Trade Union Renewal in Australia: rebuilding worker involvement". Miles was a co-founder and managing director of Reveille Strategy, a public relations agency working with progressive organisations to "mobilise for campaigns and trumpet their message to the community". Prior to his election to parliament he also worked as an adviser to state treasurer Andrew Fraser and as industrial relations director of state public sector union
Together ''ToGetHer'' (, aka Superstar Express) is a 2009 Taiwanese drama starring Jiro Wang of Fahrenheit, Rainie Yang and George Hu. It was produced by Comic International Productions ( 可米國際影視事業股份有限公司) and directed by Linzi ...
.


Political career

Miles was initially a member of the
Labor Right The Labor Right (LR), also known as Labor Forum, Labor Unity or simply Unity, is one of the two major political factions within the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It is nationally characterised by social democratic to Third Way economic policies ...
faction, but switched to
Labor Left The Labor Left (LL), also known as the Progressive Left, Socialist Left or simply the Left, is one of the two major political factions within the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It is nationally characterised by social progressivism and democra ...
after he failed to win a
preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presel ...
ballot for the seat of
Pine Rivers The Shire of Pine Rivers was a local government area about north of Brisbane in the Moreton Bay region of South East Queensland, Australia. The shire covered an area of , and existed as a local government entity from 1888 until 2008, when it a ...
prior to the
2009 Queensland state election The 2009 Queensland state election was held on 21 March 2009 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament. The election saw the incumbent Australian Labor Party (Queensland Bra ...
. He was the unsuccessful Labor candidate for Ryan at the
2010 Australian federal election The 2010 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010 to elect members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard won a second term against the ...
. Miles was first elected to state seat of Mount Coot-tha at the 2015 state election. He was sworn in as Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection and Minister for National Parks and the Great Barrier Reef in the First Palaszczuk ministry on 16 February 2015. As Environment Minister, Miles announced Queensland's first container deposit scheme to improve recycling of can and bottles, which began operating in 2018. Following an electoral redistribution in 2017 that abolished the seat of Mount Coot-tha, Miles stood for the North Brisbane electorate of Murrumba and was elected in the 2017 state election. He was appointed and sworn in as the Minister for Health and Ambulance Services in the Second Palaszczuk ministry after the election. He was health minister for the first months of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia was a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case in Aust ...
and in January 2020 declared a public health emergency, the first such declaration by an Australian state. In May 2020, Miles was appointed Deputy Premier of Queensland, following the resignation of the previous Deputy Premier Jackie Trad. He continued to be Minister for Health and Ambulance Services until the 2020 state election, after which he was appointed the Minister for State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning in the Third Palaszczuk ministry.


Premier of Queensland

In December 2023, following Palaszczuk's resignation, Miles announced he would be a candidate to succeed her as state premier and ALP leader in Queensland. It was reported that he was aligned with the dominant left faction and enjoyed the support of the United Workers Union. He was initially opposed for the leadership by Shannon Fentiman, but Fentiman subsequently withdrew after a deal was struck between Miles and Cameron Dick of the right faction in which Dick would become deputy premier. He was elected unopposed on 15 December 2023 and sworn in as premier on the same day. Miles' initial priorities as premier included addressing
cost of living The cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living for an individual or a household. Changes in the cost of living over time can be measured in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare t ...
pressures, legislating stronger climate and emissions reductions targets, and reducing youth crime.


Cost of living

The Miles Government introduced a package of measures in 2024 to ease cost of living pressures including: * 50 cent flat-rate fares on
public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...
across Queensland to save money for commuters and reduce road congestion. A six-month trial of 50 cent fares began on 5 August 2024. By September 2024, the trial has deemed successful with public transport patronage increasing beyond pre-
pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...
levels. Miles committed to making 50 cent fares permanent if his Labor Government was re-elected. * $1000 electricity rebate for all Queensland households. This was in addition to the $300 electricity rebate provided to households by the federal Albanese Government in the 2024 federal budget. * 20 percent reduction in vehicle registration fees for 12 months. * $200 vouchers to assist families with children aged 5–17 with the cost of membership and participation in sport. The cost of living measures were funded by the State Government's progressive coal royalties regime, which provided an additional $9.4 billion in revenue to Queensland since it was introduced in 2022. The Miles Government passed legislation to protect progressive coal royalties being removed by a future LNP government. In August 2024, Miles announced that a re-elected Labor Government would lower petrol prices by establishing 12 state-owned fuel stations to improve competition, as well as ban fuel stations from raising the price of fuel more than once a day, and require fuel stations to release price changes a day in advance.


Environment and climate change

Queensland saw a 35 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, which beat the Labor Government's previous emissions target of 30 percent reduction by 2030. In 2024, the Miles Government passed the ''Clean Economy Jobs Act 2024'' and ''Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Act 2024'' to legislate stronger emissions reductions targets of 75 percent by 2035 and net zero by 2050, and set Queensland's renewable energy targets at 50 percent by 2030, 70 percent by 2032 and 80 percent by 2035. The legislation also entrenched public ownership of energy assets and established a $150 million Job Security Guarantee and Fund to ensure energy workers at existing publicly owned power stations and associated coal mines have access to new jobs and training or financial assistance during the State's transition to renewable energy. At the 2024–25 State Budget, the Miles Government announced $26 billion over four years would be invested into renewable power, storage and transmission projects in Queensland, including $8.68 billion in 2024–25 alone. Miles also opposed the federal Liberal National Party proposal to support to introduce nuclear energy to Australia and construct nuclear reactors in Queensland. In 2024, the Miles Government expanded environmental protection in Queensland by banning all
carbon capture and storage Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process by which carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial installations is separated before it is released into the atmosphere, then transported to a long-term storage location.IPCC, 2021Annex VII: Glossary at ...
in the Great Artesian Basin; protecting an additional 59,000 hectares of land by creating two new national parks (The Lakes National Park near Hughenden and Malbon Thompson Range National Park near
Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...
) and expanding 18 existing national parks; and adding 140 islands or parts of islands within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to Queensland's protected areas estate.


Housing and homelessness

In 2024 Miles announced the $3.1 billion 'Homes for Queenslanders' plan to build one million new homes by 2046, including 53,000 new social homes. As part of that plan the Miles Government passed rental reform legislation that strengthen the rights of tenants, banned rent-bidding by real estate agents, created a portable bond scheme to allow tenants to transfer bond from one property to another. Miles also announced every specialist homelessness services in Queensland would receive a 20 percent increase in funding. The Miles Government removed
stamp duty Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions). Historically, a ...
for first homebuyers on properties valued up to $700,000.


Social policy

The Miles Government passed legislation in 2024 to decriminalise the sex work industry that repealed all previously existing criminal offences relating to sex work and improved the health, safety, and workplace rights of sex workers.


2024 election

At the 2024 Queensland state election, Labor was defeated, losing 15 seats with a 7% two-party-preferred swing towards the Liberal National Party (LNP). Miles conceded the election on the night but initially held back on conceding to LNP leader
David Crisafulli David Frank Crisafulli (; born 14 April 1979) is an Australian politician currently serving as the 41st Premier of Queensland since 28 October 2024 and leader of the Liberal National Party (LNP) since 12 November 2020. He has been the member ...
, claiming the LNP would not be able to form a majority. He conceded defeat to Crisafulli at a press conference the next day after the election was called in the LNP's favour, having won a majority. Per state Labor Party rules, the defeat triggered an automatic
leadership spill In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply a spill) is a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions (leader and deputy leader in ...
. Miles was re-elected unopposed as Labor leader, and hence Leader of the Opposition, after senior Labor MPs Cameron Dick and Shannon Fentiman chose not to contest the leadership.


Personal life

Miles has three children with his wife Kim McDowell. Miles supports the
Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...
.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Steven 1977 births Living people Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland Australian republicans Labor Left politicians Deputy premiers of Queensland Premiers of Queensland 21st-century Australian politicians University of Queensland alumni