The Premier has admitted that Labor is the ‘underdog’ going into the Ipswich West by-election and the October state election.
Steven Miles made the comments yesterday while announcing the beginning of early works on the $710 million Ipswich Hospital Stage Two expansion.
Premier Steven Miles told a press conference that there was no doubt that Labor was bracing for a double-digit swing in this Saturday’s Ipswich West by-election.
“As we know the LNP have done that really tight deal with One Nation, there are no candidates in the race preferencing us and we certainly are working very hard to win but we are expecting to see a very large swing,” he said.
Premier Steven Miles is also not taking anything for granted when state Labor heads to the polls in October this year.
“David Crissafulli has already declared he’s the Premier elect, they’re already planning their transition to government because they think they have already won,” he said.
“We will never take the votes of Queenslanders for granted and we will campaign every single day until October to demonstrate to Queenslanders that we are the best choice for them,” Premier Miles said.
Ipswich West candidate Wendy Bourne is representing Labor in this Saturday’s by-Election.
Meanwhile, The Premier Steven Miles, Deputy Premier and Treasurer Cameron Dick, Health Minister Shannon Fentiman and local State MPs including Ipswich State MP Jennifer Howard were at the official launch of early works on the Stage Two expansion of Ipswich Hospital yesterday.
The early works will pave the way for the main construction phase of the hospital expansion later this year.
Once constructed the multi-story acute services building will house the following:
- 200 new beds
- A new and expanded emergency department
- Additional operating theatres
- A satellite medical imaging service
- A central sterilisation service
- Back-of-house services
- Shell spaces for future development
The project is part of the Miles Labor Government’s record-breaking $14 billion Health Big Build, under Queensland’s Big Build initiative.
Ipswich saw almost 20,000 people visit the Ipswich Hospital’s emergency department in the last quarter of 2023 (October, November, December).
The project is expected to be completed by late 2027.
