‘Crime, coal, crocs’: Palaszczuk’s charm offensive met with blunt reality in north Queensland

Annastacia Palaszczuk brushed off Robbie Katter’s calls of a divided state, saying ‘Queensland is best when we are united’. Photograph: Jason O’Brien/AAP

If you listen to Robbie Katter, there is a “deep divide” separating Queensland’s tropical north from the home of power in the state’s south-east.

The maverick Queensland MP, son of long-serving federal independent Bob Katter, told reporters this week there are “three big issues” currently troubling his constituents: “Crime, coal, crocs.”