Imagine if we attacked a mother for taking a single day’s holiday to spend time with her young family – while she carried a phone to be updated regularly on office matters.

We’d applaud her work ethic, and her ability to multi-skill. We’d say she had her priorities right, and encourage the same in our own homes. And we’d be right.

And yet when Steven Miles, Queensland’s new Premier, takes one day off as a commitment to his young family, he is pilloried, and put in the same camp as Scott Morrison.

That says more about his attackers than anyone else. (For the record, the former PM snuck off while the nation burned, popping up at a beach in Hawaii; a different country and in a different time zone. And when he returned, he reminded us all that it wasn’t his job to carry a hose, or help.)

In comparison, Miles drove an hour from the office, kept his mobile on him, and spoke to staff regularly. As he should.

The behaviour of his predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk was more in line with Morrison, when she skipped off to Italy with her boyfriend, and didn’t even tell her treasurer she was going.

Indeed, her behaviour, over the last two years, will continue to be an achilles heel for Labor, which has a mountain of work to fight its way back into this year’s election race.

That’s because voters know what we deserve. And we know that, for too long, we’ve been used as pawns in a political power game.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give Miles a chance to settle in and be the circuit-breaker to the unimaginative leadership the ALP has delivered in recent times.

Miles is clever and down-to-earth. He also didn’t see eye-to-eye on many issues with his former leader. That doesn’t mean he’ll be a success, but let’s leave judgement until he’s had a chance to tell us what he will do, how he will do it, and how our State will benefit.

And if he doesn’t, then we should hold him to account.

But behind-the-scenes briefings are already putting a target on his forehead, particularly over the issue of gender. Let’s take the criticism, for example, that we now have two leaders who are male – Miles and the LNP’s David Crisafulli – who do not represent 50 percent of the Queensland population.

That’s true – but isn’t it more about what they do than whether they are male or female?

Our judgement should be reserved to see what the ALP – and its male leader – now does to advance the cause of women. For example, what if Miles was able to curb the tally of women losing their lives through domestic violence.

Wouldn’t that be lauded as a success – irrespective of his gender?

Or more broadly, what if Miles took on youth crime with a vengeance his predecessor seemed to fear. Open closed police stations. Provide a way to increase the visibility of our men and women in blue. Address leadership issues within the service. Cut the number of repeat offenders. Takd on his own faction and party in the process to stop a ‘movement’ that has people locked in their own homes.

Wouldn’t that be a success?

What about if Miles didn’t think he was the brightest person in the room, and tapped into the advice of school principals on education and CEOs on business and health professionals on systemic failures and young people on everything relating to their future.

And perhaps I’m dreaming, but what if he did that in a fresh, open, public and accountable way…

My point is that Miles might fail. But we shouldn’t expect that, or hope that.

This year could be a contest of ideas between the two big parties. Miles v Crisafulli. Labor v LNP. Both of them hard-working. And both of them want to be premier, in October.

Can you imagine, even, if they picked an issue – let’s say crime – and worked together towards a solution. Announced it together. Implemented it together, for all Queenslanders.

Just because it hasn’t happened, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t. Not only would that be a striking opener for 2024, but they’d deserve a week off. No questions asked.