Queensland election 2024: Sarah Greenhalgh in fiery debate with Robbie Katter over abortion laws

Robbie Katter and 7NEWS’ Sarah Greenhalgh have gone head-to-head on live TV over Queensland’s abortion laws after it fast became the defining issue of the state election.

Queenslanders headed to the polls on Saturday with Premier Steven Miles aiming to keep Labor in power for its fourth term while Opposition Leader David Crisafulli hoped to lead the LNP to victory for the first time since 2015.

A Labor victory was looking unlikely on Saturday night with the Liberal National Party still hoping it might form a majority government by the end of counting.

Mr Crisafulli was dogged by questions about abortion in the final weeks of his campaign after crossbenchers suggested they wanted to wind back laws and put it on the criminal code.

One of those crossbenchers was Robbie Katter, the leader of Katter’s Australian Party, who said on October 8 he would repeal abortion laws.

“We will, quick as you like, put a repeal bill back into the Queensland parliament on those abortion laws,” Mr Katter said.

“All these MPs out there can stop their dog whistling and can say before the election that they support us, and we’ll give them every opportunity to vote for a repeal bill in the next parliament.”

Those comments came to a head on Saturday night when Mr Katter appeared on 7NEWS’ live coverage of the Queensland election and Brisbane anchor Sarah Greenhalgh asked the politician if he was going to say sorry to women.

“The abortion debate has caused women a huge amount of fear and anxiety in this state ... are you going to apologise?”, Greenhalgh asked.

Greenhalgh then revealed she had received a number of calls from medical professionals reporting a spike in women expressing their concern about the political debate and the potential windback of abortion laws.

“Are you speaking for all women?” Katter replied.

“I would argue there’s babies in this equation as well, they need representation.”

Greenhalgh, who recently returned home to Brisbane to co-anchor the 6pm bulletin with Max Futcher, reminded Mr Katter she was pregnant.

“Robbie, you’re talking to a pregnant woman at the moment so I’m more than aware there are babies involved,” she said.

“We’re allowed to have different views, we’re allowed to have an alternate view in this state,” Mr Katter replied before suggesting he had been hounded by journalists over his opinion on abortion.

“I’m not hounding you,” Greenhalgh responded. “Do you at least acknowledge this is irresponsible to say ‘I’m going to test parliament’ ... (this is) causing women so much angst.”

Abortion became a heated topic in the state election campaign with Mr Crisafulli battling questions about putting the health procedure back on the criminal code if it won a majority government.

Mr Katter, whose party had won three seats by Saturday night, including his own seat of Traeger, said he would “rather be talking about crime and cost of living” as the abortion debate raged on.

“I welcome telling people what my values are, I don’t care if it loses or wins me votes,” he said.

“That’s what I’ve said the whole time, that’s the whole point of the political process. I’m sorry people aren’t open about it.”

The Queensland election is going down to the wire with Labor appearing to stave off a landslide defeat which all the polls suggested was going to be the case.

Earlier on Saturday night, LNP frontbencher David Janetzki said the abortion debate had distracted voters from the real issues facing Queenslanders.

“This has been one of the most dishonest scare campaigns in Queensland’s electoral history,” Mr Janetzki said on the ABC.

“We’ve ruled it out. There won’t be any changes to the termination of pregnancy legislation.

“It’s been a fabrication heaped on a lie.”