Katter’s Australian party MPs and former Labor MP Rob Pyne plan to force vote on whether north Queensland should becoming its own state

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

North Queensland could become its own state under plans from a powerful bloc of MPs to force a referendum on the issue.

Katter’s Australian party (KAP) MPs Rob Katter and Shane Knuth, along with former Labor MP Rob Pyne, all north Queensland MPs, are reportedly mobilising against what they see as a lack of infrastructure investment and interest in north Queensland from a Brisbane-centric government.

Pyne, the now-independent Cairns MP, this week admitted he quit Labor to take advantage of the state’s hung parliament, believing he could secure more local projects and services for his electorate by making demands of his former party.

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He has long been frustrated by what he sees as the lack of investment in the region – a qualm also shared by his new crossbench colleagues Katter and Knuth.

The group is now contemplating whether a referendum should be held on north Queensland becoming its own state.

KAP founder and federal MP Bob Katter said residents in north and regional Queensland should be able to decide their own future.

“Within the next 18 months, I think we can most certainly get a referendum up,” he told the Sunday Mail.

The minister for Northern Australia, Matt Canavan, supported the creation of new states, but the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has poured cold water on the idea.

Queensland should be growing, not shrinking, to possibly encompass parts of northern NSW that shared a greater affinity with the sunshine state, Palaszczuk said.