Newsroom

September 18, 2025

Hinchinbrook MP and Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Deputy Leader Nick Dametto has condemned the LNP’s submission to the Queensland Redistribution Commission, describing it as a politically motivated proposal that completely disregards the needs of North Queensland communities, specifically in the Townsville and Hinchinbrook regions.

The LNP’s proposal is to alter the boundaries of the Hinchinbrook electorate significantly by expanding northwards to include Mission Beach, Innisfail, and parts of the Tablelands along the Palmerston Highway and Millaa Millaa–Malanda Road. To the south, it would take in Palm Island but lose its current northern Townsville suburbs, including Bushland Beach, Mount Low, and Burdell, which would be absorbed into the Townsville and Thuringowa electorates.[1]

Mr Dametto said the LNP was putting political self-interest ahead of the people of North Queensland by brazenly reshaping boundaries to suit their own agenda.

“Take Palm Island for example. The LNP proposes moving it to Hinchinbrook due to the “ferry service from Lucinda and longstanding cultural ties.” This inaccurate, self-motivated submission completely bypasses the reality that the only link Palm Island has to Hinchinbrook is a commercial barge based in Lucinda. Every other essential service including airline travel, ferry travel, health, policing, emergency services, food, and supplies comes from Townsville, not Ingham or Lucinda.

“Under the LNP’s ill-conceived proposal, the Member for Hinchinbrook would have to travel via Townsville just to reach constituents on Palm Island and vice versa. It shows they have no understanding of the Palm Island community, nor do they care. A responsible political party would be making it easier for communities like Palm Island to engage with their local representatives, not creating unnecessary barriers that isolate people even further from their state MP.

“If the LNP got its way, the Hinchinbrook electorate would be split almost fifty-fifty between North Queensland and Far North Queensland. This would require significant time being spent outside of the electorate to meet and work with government departments in both Cairns and Townsville, whereas currently a large majority of the workload falls within North Queensland, and therefore Townsville, which is manageable.

“The LNP’s push to create new seats in the southeast and reduce representation in North Queensland, by also wanting to abolish the seat of Hill, is a targeted attack on the rights of regional communities to the representation they deserve.

“A boundary redistribution happens in Queensland every 8 years but crudely, electorate boundaries are distributed on population and fail to take in economic value of a region, diversity of industries, and geographical land mass. This means as the city centres of Queensland grow, regional representation is diminished, and this will be the case if the LNP gets their way and North Queensland will go from 13 to 12 seats.

“The LNP may be able to debate that the quality of representation is more important than numbers of seats in the North, but for anyone who understands the democratic system knows that numbers count whether it’s in the party room or the Parliament. Less votes equals less of a say.”

Mr Dametto and the KAP have submitted formal responses to the Queensland Redistribution Commission in response to submissions from the LNP and others, which will be published online in due course.