Member for Traeger Robbie Katter said the state government should have done more to open up North Queensland quicker.
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Speaking to the North West Star on Friday ahead of the Premier's announcement to bring forward Stage 2 easing today (Monday June 1) Mr Katter said Queensland was too big for one set of rules.
"It was pretty hard to criticise the government in the first month or two, during crisis mode," Mr Katter said.
"But by varying degrees we could have opened in regions a lot earlier into a free position back to normality."
Mr Katter wanted to see a northern bubble but admitted we are not out of the woods and when asked about the Blackwater case, Mr Katter said he was not advocating complacency.
"Yes there may be one or two incidents here but if the focus is on social distancing and quickly isolating cases that's just as important," he said.
"A lot of businesses could be doing better, that should be our primary concern getting back to normal.
"The situation has matured enough to pull this apart and fully open up places like Julia Creek and say, Mount Isa you're at 70% because you've still got some FIFO workers.
Mr Katter also hit out at the cutbacks in parliament sittings since COVID-19.
"They have reduced the hours of parliament sitting and reduced the number of sitting weeks this year which going into an election reduces the scrutiny of this government,' he said.
"I would argue they were doing a poor job leading into the coronavirus especially how they approached the north Queensland economy.
"My part has a battle for speaking spots. There's no budget, so they have a free run to the election."
Mr Katter also said he would continue to battle for exemptions on Blue Cards despite his bill going down.
"I've had people on both sides say it is a good bill but they are scared of being seen as soft on crime," he said.
"If you ask me do I think Blue Cards have assisted reducing sexual assault in communities, the answer is no I don't.
"They have restricted people from getting work."
As for the On Country program announcement to tackle youth crime, he says the proof will be in the pudding.
"They still have to make tough decisions on how it operates and how it works.and when it comes to On Country programs and who runs them, certain groups think they can do it better than others and it's tricky space and that's where governments have to be tough," he said.
"At the end of the day we need a facility for kids where there is an alternative from sentencing because that's a breakdown."
As for CopperString he applauded the $15m support from the government but was cautious when asked did he think it would get the project over the line.
"We still need Glencore and all the mines to sign on the dotted line," he said.
"They've indicated their intentions they want to progress it, but last time Xstrata used this to get a better power price for themselves, this time hopefully they won't demonstrate that ruthless brutality in their attitudes."
He also cautioned on the recent announcement of a $100 million regional resource fund.
"It all sounds good but profitability will come off the mining which might make one company say 'let's shut down the copper smelter' and there is no question in my mind that government will be trying to take as money money as they can for Brisbane.
"But give us cheap energy and there is 50 years of future here,
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