A News Corp paper that put Annastacia Palaszczuk in the crosshairs of a rifle with the words “Anna, you’re next” had the potential to trigger violence against Queensland’s premier, the Australian Press Council has found.

The article “went beyond political comment and showed the premier being the subject of potential significant violence”, the media watchdog said.

The Sunshine Coast Daily breached the press council’s standards of practice which require papers to avoid a substantial risk to health or safety.

“This could have been taken by some readers as condoning violence against the Premier or had the potential to trigger violence against the Premier,” said the adjudication, published in Monday’s Sunshine Coast Daily.

The Queensland government lodged a complaint with the Australian Press Council in May on the grounds that the image encouraged violence against women, and asked the Rupert Murdoch-owned regional paper to remove the image and apologise.

“The council considers it was deeply regrettable that the publication made the original decision to publish the image, initially refused to apologise and delayed in removing the image page from its digital platforms,” the council said.

“However the council welcomes the prominent apology by the publication and its subsequent action in addressing the complaint.”

In May the Sunshine Coast Daily belatedly apologised. Its editor, Craig Warhurst, said sorry “to those of you in the community who feel let down and betrayed by the image”.

The image accompanied an analysis of the federal election result in which the paper argued that the Queensland Labor leader was now in danger of losing power after her party’s poor showing in the state.

The acting Queensland police minister, Craig Crawford, was among those who called the image disgraceful, particularly in the context of an epidemic of violence against women.

“I don’t condone a newspaper or anybody putting anybody’s head in crosshairs,” he told ABC radio in Brisbane. “Because that does incite violence. To some people out there it is an invitation to shoot the premier. There is absolutely no doubt what a person’s face in crosshairs means.”

After the initial complaint the the paper’s deputy editor, John Farmer, told Palaszczuk’s office he did “not intend to pull down the front page from online, nor apologise” and offered to publish a letter.

“The front page is not an attempt to incite violence against the Premier,” Farmer said. “This was never our intention and it would never be at any time.

“What the front page seeks to highlight is the fact that Labor’s poor performance in the federal election in Queensland means the State Government is now in the political sights of the conservative parties in Queensland. A lot of that centres around the Adani process.”