The Mornington Shire deputy mayor has been getting around the electorate and the North West Star caught up with her in Mount Isa on Monday.

“I started in Karumba and did the back roads trip down to Charters Towers and spent a couple of days there meeting the mayor and community organisations,” Ms Isaacs said.

Ms Isaacs said the issue of health and the hospital was the issue at that end of the election though community safety was raised as more of a concern in the north west.

“There has to be a collaborative approach with the major stakeholders in the community,” she said.

Ms Isaacs said it was important to listen to people and understand their issues.

“Having been on council, I can now see the bigger picture,” she said.

“We’ve got these levels of government and they are not all working together and we’re getting nowhere with our issues of health and unemployment.”

She encouraged people to pay attention to what the candidates had to offer.

“Come to this debate (in Mount Isa tonight) and ask me the questions that you want to know,” she said.

“I’m not an indigenous activist or a black leader – I just want to help my community.”

Elsewhere Robbie Katter has thrown his support behind the federal inquiry into regional air fares.

“Let’s just hope it has some teeth. We’ve been pushing for an inquiry for a while now and state Labor Greens and LNP have done nothing,” he said.

“The airlines must come clean and prove they’re not profiteering from the exorbitant price they’re charging on western routes.”

Labor’s Danielle Slade was campaigning for a new or refurbished Hospital in Charters Towers.

“My commitment to you as your member for Traeger, will be to lobby the Department of Health to ensure that Charters Towers gets it’s funding for the Hospital,” she said.

TRAEGER ELECTORATE: All you need to know

The LNP’s Ron Bird was promoting the fisheries set up at Karumba’s Barramundi Discovery Centre.

“It’s a boost for tourism,” he said.

“Good on the Carpentaria Shire Council for their insight to the future.

Independent Craig Scriven said the federal government close the gap initiative was not achieving outcomes for Indigenous people.

“The gap is getting bigger and bigger,” he said.

“Not between any particular race, sex or creed, the gap is getting bigger between those that make the laws, and those that it is inflicted upon.”

He said more” fair dinkum conversations” took place around a crib room table than would ever happen in a board room.

“How can someone represent and govern ‘the people’ if they've never been ‘the people’,” he said.