The coming weeks offer the crisis-conditioned Palaszczuk Government the opportunity to shake off the appearance of a tired administration lurching toward opposition in less than two years.

Its response on a number of immediate challenges will hint at whether it can use the benefits of incumbency to reshape its purpose and narrative in time to regain enough of the electoral support that has given it three unexpected terms of office.

The response to the domestic violence inquiry will be a clue. While the future of the Police Commissioner is the headline act, the real issue in my mind is the apparent weakness of the government to set a tone through both the Queensland Police Service and the whole public sector that condemns poor standards and weeds it out rather than just apologising for it.

The tricky timing of the report’s release – not issued in time for journalists to read it before the Premier answered questions – is not a good sign.

As Professor Peter Coaldrake pointed out seven times in his “Let The Sunshine In” report, “tone from the top” matters. The top is a lonely place for its occupants (and that means the Premier, the Cabinet and the top tier of the public service) but it’s also the place where tone sets the standards that guide our confidence in the government.

The election date is now legislated as being the last Saturday in October every four years. While the Palaszczuk Government is the first to have the benefit of this certainty, it has not been able to demonstrate its value in building both a political strategy and a strategy for the wellbeing of the state.

But a month or two is a long time in politics.

There are any number of opportunities (which also offer challenges) to turn things around in 2023, leaving a year to build a strategy electors can buy into to see out the decade. And the Olympics and Paralympics alone won’t be enough.

This week, it’s dealing with police attitudes to domestic violence. Next week, it will be determining the future of Star Entertainment which has to show cause why it should keep its casino licences.

When parliament sits, it will be the legislation to enact the first reforms of the Coaldrake Review and its antecedent inquiries into the public sector.

In the new year, it will be the results of the DNA inquiry which look like prompting the reopening of hundreds of crime investigations shut down because of presumed lack of evidence. (And if you think the police and courts systems are under strain now, wait until that wave of work hits).

The government has announced but hasn’t really acted on plans to increase the volume of social housing, reduce the volume of carbon and turn up the volume on juvenile crime offenders.

It has a budget with little room to move except through taxing the resources industry which responds with threats of a capital strike.

It has a lot of faith in hydrogen to replace steaming coal and gas as our next major export but inadequate science to support it.

Coming into a fresh Covid wave, it has a public health system struggling to meet regular needs, let alone ongoing pandemic-driven demand. And it’s still repairing infrastructure damaged in this year’s flooding, unable to do much more than cross fingers that 2023 won’t offer a repeat wet season.

As I wrote three weeks ago, who’d be in government? Well, the truth is many people want to be. But the trade-off is they have to deal with multiple issues, not just bat them away with inquiries that attract dust and processes that tick boxes but rarely improve lives.

If it can deal with just these few issues and inspire the electorate with some positives over the next few years (and Cross River Rail alone won’t be enough), the Palaszczuk Government may survive another term.

It will need to renovate its lineup and start truly engaging with the public rather than relying on the lazy approach of social media where inarticulate ministers are never directly challenged to explain themselves.

It starts with tone right from the very top. When, for instance, was the last time you heard the Premier give a probing one-on-one interview (as distinct from a media conference grab) that demonstrated her grip on the complexity of what she’s dealing with?

Year endings are usually a time for celebration but also a time for reflection. Anyone got a mirror?

(Disclosure: David Fagan was part of the small team that assisted Professor Peter Coaldrake’s Let The Sun Shine In inquiry)