Independent Whitsundays MP Jason Costigan has accused the government and tourism body of being “in denial” about the need for shark control in Queensland.

Two British tourists are the latest to be added to a roster of shark attack victims, after an incident near Hook Passage, between Hook Island and Whitsunday Island.

One of the men, 28-year-old Alistair Raddon, had his right foot bitten off.

“I don’t want to say I told you so, because it doesn’t change the circumstances,” Mr Costigan tells Ben Fordham.

“I am not some cowboy from the tropics, who just wants to indiscriminately shoot sharks and cull sharks, but I do want to see some common sense.

“I want to place a priority on human life.”

Mr Costigan has been pushing for greater action for a long time.

“We’ve had five attacks now in 12 months,” he says, accusing the Queensland government of kowtowing to the Greens.

27 drum lines and 160 shark nets along the north Queensland coast were removed last month, after the state government lost a legal battle with animal rights group Humane Society International.

20 of the Great Barrier Reef’s most popular beaches are now unprotected.

“This has been a program that hasn’t had any political argy-bargy for the best part of six decades, and all of a sudden the world’s gone mad.”

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Image: Getty/Imke Meyer