Eric Adams, the 61-year-old Democratic Party first term New York mayor has a high profile, highly demanding job in the famous city that never sleeps.

Recently his poll numbers have taken a serious but not fatal dip and he’s the target of opponents and media for enjoying the nightlife – “turns on red carpets, drop-bys at clubs, and theater and fashion events” as The New York Times said at the weekend.

It’s said Adams likes the hours 5-to-9 rather than 9-to-5. In typical New York style, the former policeman, who decided to join the force after being beaten brutally by uniformed officers for a petty crime when he was 15, reckons he wants to let people know America’s greatest city is back after the pandemic and “open for business, tourists, fun and, yes, swagger”.

The stories about Adams’s slide from high approval ratings and the spotlight shining on his social life strike a chord in Brisbane because this state’s leader Annastacia Palaszczuk has been chased around the paddock of public opinion over her standing and whether or not she “enjoys the high life”.

Polling published in the first days of this month suggested her personal ratings had dropped from the high levels she enjoyed during the most demanding days of the covid pandemic, the government’s voter support had dropped from its plus 3 per cent election advantage in October, 2020 to a 50/50 split now and that she enjoys that wonderful “high life” too much.

The data provided by YouGov was nowhere near as dramatic as some of the reporting on the polls suggested – the Premier’s fall from her higher ratings still placed her in a relatively good “net positive” position especially when measured against some other state leaders who had even higher pandemic-effect ratings.

She remains strongly favoured as the best person to do the top job when held up against the LNP’s David Crisafulli and the electoral gravity in the poll is an amber warning light rather than a flashing red alert.

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The “high life” question was probably a motivator in the commissioning of the poll (four options were given, “Cares about Queensland”, “Works Hard”, “Is easily Influenced” and “Enjoys the High Life”) and the answer was not a surprise.

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Given the “high life” Palaszczuk has been enjoying – some big red carpet turns for events such as the Logies, the Elvis movie premiere and a big Olympic Games bash in Sydney – it would be hard to have a poll which didn’t turn up a positive rating for such a question.

In the poll, the question was at the bottom of the four and placed on usual rotation in the survey. It was well down in the questionnaire, meaning it was handled fairly and properly and not placed in a position to pollute other results. So, it was a fair representation of a reasonable question.

However, what we don’t know is whether people thought Palaszczuk enjoying the “high life” was a good thing or a bad thing. The implication and intent was all packed into those loaded words “high life”.

It is entirely possible people thought it was good she was on the red carpet representing Queensland because it’s good for the state and to not be out there promoting the state would get you marked down.

Otherwise, people might have thought it was bad she was out living it up because they regarded her activity as being outside more important duties. This is the danger of dumbing down some sensible polling.

Given other numbers in the survey – the still positive attitude towards Palaszczuk’s performance, her standing as preferred premier and the fact she’s regarded as the best premier of the last 22 years – you could easily conclude most people like the fact she is out selling the state and attending what many people think of as important business.

Underneath all the searching for a way to blacken Palaszczuk’s character is a basic misreading of the Queensland electorate – voters still like the Premier although her ratings have dropped from those dizzying heights of 2020.

This is not to say Palaszczuk doesn’t have a problem on the red carpet. It is, as so often happens in politics, about perception.

More often than not Palaszczuk has been featured sharing the limelight with her plus-one Dr Reza Adib, a man voters don’t know and many wonder what his role is. That he looks like he’s the guy having the most fun of anyone in the photos is also a problem.

All of that is something the Premier needs to sort out for herself.

However, it’s not the biggest or most demanding issue facing her government. It’s a bit of a shock to realise this administration is just over four months away from the halfway point of this term. Come the end of October, there will be a 24 month countdown ticking over in this first fixed four years in office.

If the government has not sorted out a set of serious problems by the end of October – by that critical halfway point – it might by then be impossible to turn things around.

The brutally important, inescapable issues Palaszczuk and her Labor MPs face (in broad order of difficulty) are the cost and delivery of health services; tackling crime that always finds new ways to manifest the insidious reality of stolen cars, break and enters and personal injury; the supply of housing in all its forms; the crushing cost-of-living burden and the need to meet challenges from weather that’s always asking more of us.

When Palaszczuk and her Labor Caucus colleagues meet at the beginning of next week for their annual get together, they need to face the reality they might not be down and out but they are up against myriad challenges which could singularly break most administrations.

The public see this government as tired – seven years in and a longer story that goes all the way back to 1989. Voters are getting tired of the same dog-day excuses, the same talking points replacing genuine communication and a ministry convinced of its own invincibility.

Voters want new ideas, a fresh commitment and an end to excuses. Business as usual is the enemy.