If Queensland split in two, would things really go south?

The perennial passion project of north Queensland politicians, particularly those of the Katter variety, reared its head again in state parliament last week.

Secession – the push for swathes of north Queensland to be excised from George Street’s rule.

North Queensland statehood is, constitutionally speaking, no easy task.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Robbie Katter unsuccessfully tried to get north Queensland statehood back on the agenda in parliament, moving “that this house supports taking the necessary steps to form a separate state of North Queensland in accordance with section 124 of the Commonwealth constitution”.

“This is not about being parochial,” Katter assured us.

“It is not that anyone wants to separate. There is a cultural indifference, I believe, in the city towards those areas up north.”

The would-be premier of NQ – and he would be, wouldn’t he? – rightly pointed out Tasmania is a state.

While the location of his proposed northern border wasn’t revealed, the combined populations of Mackay, Townsville, Cairns and Mt Isa alone is about 430,000 – about 70,000 shy of Tasmania.

Sadly for Katter and the broader secession movement, the motion was voted down in the house, with only One Nation’s Steve Andrew joining the Katter’s Australian Party MPs in support.

Were our political leaders a little too quick to knock it back? Probably not.

It would be hard to imagine a state of North Queensland having an economy of scale to fund the infrastructure and personnel needed to service a relatively small population spread out across a relatively gigantic region.

But that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be a few advantages, including for those of us left behind in the south.

First up, we could finally be in sync with our southern neighbours in the summer months.

Like daylight saving or not (and I’m on the fence), navigating the time zones during the summer months can be a lot more difficult than it has any right being. In a separated state, it would make a lot more sense for southern Queensland to be time-aligned with Sydney and Melbourne, than with Cairns and Townsville.

In the winter months, having a North Queensland side thrown into the State of Origin mix might finally give the Maroons some competition. Though it never really gets tired beating the Blues year after year after year after year after... (and so on).

There’s community safety, too.

If Bob Katter snr has taught me anything, it’s that a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile every three months. All in my own state! How am I supposed to sleep easy knowing this is going on within these very borders?

But if the north goes its own way, I won’t need to spend any time on it.

And it could even be good news for Premier Steven Miles, who insisted on Friday Queensland was “stronger together”.

As the KAP’s Nick Dametto quipped in parliament last week: “If you separated the state of Queensland right now, the Labor Party might actually have a chance of winning government in the next state election.”

History shows it’s not that easy to create a new Australian state. In 1967, a referendum on statehood for NSW’s New England region was defeated with a “no” vote of 54 per cent.

Provisions exist in the constitution for New Zealand to become a state, but the likelihood of that happening would be even less than the Wallabies winning the Bledisloe Cup.

So how easy would it be for a North Queensland to be welcomed into the Commonwealth fold?

To answer this, I asked renowned constitutional law expert Anne Twomey, from the University of Sydney.

As luck would have it, as I reached out to Twomey she was about to upload a new video about the renewed debate to her informative YouTube channel, Constitutional Clarion (take a look below).

Twomey told me the federal parliament could admit new states to the Commonwealth under section 121 of the constitution, “imposing such terms and conditions, including with respect to representation in either house of parliament, as it thinks fit.”

“In addition, section 124 requires the ‘consent of the parliament’ of an affected state,” she says.

“So both parliaments must consent, and the use of the term ‘parliament’ indicates that this needs to be done by legislation.”

One of the major problems, Twomey says, is that a new state has never been created in post-federation Australia.

“This means that we have no court precedents to rely upon,” she says.

“... The constitution guarantees the original states, being those that joined at the time of federation, equal Senate representation and a minimum of five seats in the House of Representatives, regardless of their population.

“If a state were to be divided in half or cut into thirds, there could be a dispute as to which of the resulting states was the ‘original’ state, with guaranteed rights, or whether all parts would lose those rights.

“For example, if Queensland was carved up into three states, could it really be claimed that one of those three parts was the ‘original state’?”

Ultimately, Miles was right last week. For all our differences – and there are many – Queensland is better together.

But that’s not for southerners to decide.

If north Queensland voters want to cut ties with Brisbane, then south Queensland shouldn’t stand in their way. I just suspect they’d be smarter than that.