With the dust yet to settle on her shock resignation as premier last December, Annastacia Palaszczuk was quick to endorse her deputy Steven Miles.
The two had, after all, been close since Mr Miles was elevated to deputy premier in May 2020 after the ignominious resignation of Jackie Trad.
"I believe he'll make an excellent premier," Ms Palaszczuk remarked as she prepared to leave office.
Mr Miles in turn paid tribute to his departing boss as a "great reforming Labor premier".
"A Labor government that I lead will build on that legacy and refocus the state on the services Queenslanders rely upon," Mr Miles declared.
But legacy is starting to seem like a bit of a dirty word for senior members of Queensland Labor.
In the back of their minds will be detailed IPSOS polling released publicly in February.
Multiple rounds of polling going back to May last year revealed government satisfaction ratings in single digits on housing affordability, with the percentage of people satisfied on cost-of-living relief ranging from 9 to 15 per cent.
Satisfaction on trustworthiness ranged from 23 to 28 per cent.
Ouch.
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In February, Mr Miles told Stateline he and Ms Palaszczuk had been "very close" and that he intended to seek her counsel.
On ABC Radio Brisbane yesterday, he acknowledged that Queenslanders will judge Labor on the past, but stressed he wants the election to be about his new government's plans for the future.
Days earlier, Treasurer Cameron Dick appeared to be cutting Labor's legacy adrift with his bold back-to-the-future assertion on budget day that the October 26 poll would have nothing to do with the past.
"Queenslanders will be asked to make a choice about their future, not to express an opinion about the past," he told parliament, earning jeers from the opposition bench.
Appearing on ABC TV news on budget night, Mr Dick was asked why he was so keen for Queenslanders to forget the Palaszczuk years.
"Every election that I've been part of or watched, even as a young man, was about the future of Queensland," he replied.
"We've got our fully costed, fully detailed plan out there, (Opposition Leader) David Crisafulli is half-time in the footy game and he's hiding in the sheds and he won't tell people what he wants to do."
Mr Dick dialled it back the following day upon repeated questioning. He praised Ms Palaszczuk as a great Labor leader and suggested Labor would "love" to have her on the campaign trail.
But Labor's troubled relationship with the 'l' word became a central theme of the opposition's budget reply.
"With a past like this, it's little wonder a government would attempt to run miles from its record," Mr Crisafulli told parliament on Thursday.
Miles, not kilometres. Get it?
'Supporting the Labor agenda'
Mr Crisafulli had surprised many, not least the Labor treasurer, with his extraordinary vow to support the state budget sight unseen.
In his fifth state budget, Mr Dick aimed to stretch this vow to the limit in declaring that "not one public servant will lose their job", even as the Miles government looks to cut $3 billion in future spending.
The treasurer freely declared public sector wages would be 41 per cent of Queensland government spending by 2027-28.
He knows full well that cuts to the public sector were one of the key factors in the Newman government's colossal electoral collapse in 2015.
It's one reason former premier Campbell Newman argues the LNP has likewise been gun-shy of the 'l' word.
"For nine years the LNP have been in a lather from their time in government with me and it hasn't worked in the last eight-and-a-half years," Mr Newman told the 7.30 program.
"And sadly it's not going to work now because the thing about it is that David Crisafulli was in the Newman cabinet, as was John-Paul Langbroek, as was Tim Mander, as was Jarrod Bleijie, as was Tim Nicholls."
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Mr Newman branded the LNP's carte blanche backing of a Labor budget as "insane".
"He essentially said, we support the Labor Party's agenda for Queensland," Mr Newman said.
But then Mr Crisafulli didn't back the full Labor program.
Yes, the LNP would commit to "no forced redundancies" in the public sector.
But the opposition leader also boldly declared an LNP government would ditch Labor's planned Pioneer-Burdekin Pumped Hydro Project.
And he immediately moved to scotch any suggestion he was backtracking on his promise.
"There's a difference between responsibly supporting budget supply and honouring underway fully funded programs, and backing exorbitant thought bubbles," he said.
Mr Crisafull is yet to detail where the LNP stands on the state's current target to source 80 per cent of electricity from renewables by 2035.
Then again, October 26 is starting to feel like it's far enough away in the future.
