GOING A CUT ABOVE

AS VOTERS make lastminute decisions about who to vote for this Saturday, it’s important to bear in mind just how insignificant we are in North Queensland and why more noise needs to be made about creating a separate North Queensland state.

That sounds negative and defeatist, but it’s a reality people can use to fan their own revolutionary flame.

Of 93 seats in the soon- to- be formed Queensland Parliament, only 19 take in central and northern Queensland. It used to be 89 seats but four more seats have been added: all in the southeast ...

This means that for all the visits this month by politicians to North Queensland, it’s hard not to think that while they all need NQ seats to take power, their real masters are down south.

While North Queenslanders are forced to surrender their suburban waters to crocodiles, pay the highest fuel, insurance and electricity prices in the state and fall victim to Greens and Labor- led anti- development policies, the average southeast Queenslander remains blissfully unaware.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look after your own back yard, but when North Queenslanders want to do it, we have to rely on people with not a shred of interest in the place to help us out, and they’ve shown a very strong tendency to not do it.

North Queenslanders can stamp their feet and make threats of wreaking electoral armageddon, but it all counts for nought as long as the bulk of voters don’t live in our area.

To the South, crocs are a natural part of the landscape and so what if a few North Queenslanders die?

Cyclones don’t happen down south, so why should southeast Queenslanders add their voting weight to establish a state- run insurance office or demand more equal treatment by insurance companies? Fuel in Brisbane is cheap, why should anyone care about the North?

Katter’s Australian Party’s two MPs are staunch defenders of North Queensland and are keen proponents of establishing a North Queensland state. Another to regularly fly the flag for his home territory is the LNP’s Hinchinbrook MP, Andrew Cripps.

Cripps has shown a refreshing willingness to stand up to green dreams of a North Queensland bereft of human progress. If the LNP forms government, he has a record of declaring for the region’s interests, and be in a position to action it.

When the LNP was in government, Cripps supported – and helped implement – removing sand and debris from the highly floodprone Cattle and Frances creeks south of Ingham, rather than spending huge money to raise the Bruce Highway.

The effect was immediate as the highway wasn’t cut once in that 2012 wet season because the water could flow freely downstream.

It also had the added benefits of providing high- quality river sand for use by farmers and builders and allowed barramundi to swim upstream for the first time in years. That scenario showed what can be achieved when enough noise is made by northern members of the ruling party.

One Nation has strong backing in Hinchinbrook but its how- to- vote cards are urging people to put Labor above the LNP, and that could and should upset a few people.

Regardless of who wins government, the best scenario for the North is to at least have a serious conversation about forming a new state.

There is scope in the Aussie Constitution for it to happen and campaigner Bill Bates has been trying to get signatures on a petition in support of a referendum on the issue. Queensland’s population at federation was 500,000. It’s now 4.7 million and it’s obvious to many that the realities of life in the North are far removed from those of the South. Yet we have the South making decisions for us that don’t reflect how we live up here. >> Go to Bill’s petition at northeasternaustralia. com/ or www. parliament. qld. gov. au/ work- of- assembly/ petitions/ epetition? PetNum= 2773 and let the government know this is an issue we need to vote on.