Queensland's next premier, Steven Miles, was a climate change campaigner before entering politics but will now lead a state dependent on coal royalties to help people struggling with the cost of living.
The new Labor leader posed in a photo with former US Vice President Al Gore in 2007, following the release of his blockbuster documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
Dr. Miles, who wrote a PhD thesis from the University of Queensland on union recruitment, told Mr Gore via X last year that “you inspired me 15 years ago to do more to tackle climate change”.
The future left-wing Labor MP had joined Gore's The Climate Reality Project, which campaigned for renewable energy.
“Thank you for all your advice and support since then,” he gushed on social media.
Dr. Miles is still listed on The Climate Reality Project's website as an environmental hero.
“In a deeply conservative state with more than 50 major coal mines, he is one of several ministers who remains committed to climate change and continues to advocate for solutions within the Queensland government,” the report said.
The new Labor leader posed in a photo with former US Vice President Al Gore in 2007, following the release of his blockbuster documentary An Inconvenient Truth
Outgoing Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk appointed Dr. Miles as Minister for the Environment and Heritage Protection in February 2015 when Labor returned to power, with responsibility for national parks and the Great Barrier Reef.
At the time, he was the newly elected member for Mount Coot-tha in Brisbane's inner west, where he won the seat for Labor with a primary vote of just 32.6 percent, with preferences from the Greens, who took 22.2 percent of the vote scored.
Dr. Miles declined to contest the newly created seat of Maiwar in 2017, which the Greens won after his old seat of Mount Coot-tha was abolished and merged with Indooroopilly, which was then held by the Liberal National Party.
Instead, he became the new member for Murrumba, in Brisbane's north, and later replaced Jackie Trad as Deputy Prime Minister in May 2020 after she lost her South Brisbane seat to the Greens and her prospect of becoming the next leader of the capable of becoming.
Dr. Miles will lead a state that has run a record $12 billion budget surplus in 2022-23, with $10.5 billion coming from higher royalties on coal and oil.
Treasurer Cameron Dick, who will be the right-wing group's new deputy prime minister from Friday, has credited “progressive coal royalties” for the record budget surplus and cost-of-living aid.
“This is the largest budget surplus ever recorded by any state or territory government,” he told parliament in June.
“We can achieve our state's largest cost-of-living program, our state's largest construction program, and achieve a lower debt burden because of one simple reason: progressive royalties on coal.”
Mr. Dick also boasted that he could finance $500 in electricity rebates, $250 of which came from the federal government.
“Today I have a simple message for all those Queenslanders facing cost-of-living pressures. Help is on the way,” he said.
Ironically, the state government is using coal royalty revenue to fund its Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan, to deliver 22 gigawatts – or 22 billion watts – of new wind and solar projects by 2035, with 'grid-scale batteries' and pumped hydro.
The future MP from the left-wing Labor group cheered: 'Thank you for all your advice and support since then'
Dr. Miles told his followers in that social media post that Mr. Gore, an American Democrat, was proud of him.
“I'm really proud of what we've achieved in Queensland and our Energy and Jobs Plan,” he said.
“Here's a photo of us both looking much younger to celebrate.”
The Queensland Climate Action Plan aims for 80 percent renewable energy by 2035 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The Queensland Climate Transition Bill 2023 proposed to 'ban all new approvals for coal, oil and gas, and end fossil fuel exports by the end of 2030'.
State-owned coal-fired power stations would be converted into 'clean energy hubs'.
The move away from coal acknowledges an uncomfortable truth about coal rights.
In 2021-2022, the Queensland government received $8.4 billion in royalties from coal and oil, including liquefied natural gas.
This constituted about 30 percent of the state's total tax and royalty revenues.
Fossil fuel royalties rose to an estimated $17.6 billion in 2022-2023, thanks to high coal prices.
Even as coal prices fell, the state expected to receive annual fossil fuel royalties of more than $5 billion over the next four years.