KENNEDY MP Bob Katter has taken aim at Queensland's crocodile regulations after a man was bitten on the head by a saltie while swimming in a lake in suburban Cairns this week.
The 44-year-old man was swimming at Lake Placid when a crocodile bit his head about 12.30pm on Thursday.
He managed to fight it off, but was taken to Cairns Hospital for treatment to lacerations on his head, jaw, shoulder and hand.
Critical care paramedic Paul Sweeney said the man was swimming when he felt a sudden impact clasp on top of his head.
"He put his hands into the jaws to prise them off this head and when he did so and let go the jaw snapped shut on his left forefinger," Mr Sweeney said.
Mr Katter, who infamously claimed that 'every there months three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland, teed off after the latest incident.
He said he was "sick of dealing with half-witted, Lilypad Lefties, with stars in their eyes and marijuana in their head and lungs," referring to the Queensland Government's crocodile policy.
"You'd have to have no heart, no soul and no brain to say that we can't remove crocodiles. You'd prefer little children and human beings get torn to pieces," Mr Katter said.
"They tell us it's the crocodiles' territory.
"Well, Lake Placid has never belonged to the crocodiles.
"If they knew anything about the ecological history of Australia, they would know the First Australians got a significant part of their diet from crocodile meat and eggs. Lake Placid was never a crocodile habitat.
"I have spent my life in the bush. For near enough to a decade, I spent two months a year in the North Queensland scrub with the army and I never saw a crocodile in the wild. Now, in one out of every five river inspections I see crocodiles.
"How many missing persons in North Queensland could possibly have been because of crocodiles?"
Mr Katter said he recalled taking his family to Lake Placid for a holiday in the 1970s.
"All of the kids were swimming there every day," he said.
"There were rowboats, water bikes and it was a great place to have a picnic.
"Now, no-one would want to swim in Lake Placid."
