The colloquial Australian-English phrase to draw the crabs means: to attract unwelcome attention or criticism.

This phrase occurs, for example, in the following from Who wags the tail of the finance donkey?, by Kenneth Davidson, published in The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) of Saturday 21^st October 1995:

Mr Keating and Mr Kelty have created what amounts to a whole new industry. Compulsory superannuation diverts about $20 billion a year of wage-earner savings into the maws of the superannuation industry for speculation on shares, currencies and interest rates in the name of boosting national savings.
However, as soon as Mr Kelty expresses a view on behalf of workers’ invested funds—irrespective of the correctness or otherwise of that view—the financial establishment comes down on him and their other benefactor, Mr Keating, like a tonne of bricks.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not in the business of defending Mr Lew or the outgoing Coles Myer board, or, for that matter, Mr Kelty. But why should Mr Kelty (or the outgoing board, for that matter), draw all the crabs on this issue of Coles Myer corporate misgovernance?

Originally, in the slang of the First World War, the phrase to draw the crabs meant: to draw artillery fire from the enemy, in reference to crab shells, used with punning allusion to artillery shells—cf., below, the explanation given in quotation 2.

The earliest occurrences of the phrase to draw the crabs that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From Some “Ausie” Phrases. Common amongst the A.I.F. *, by Private E. P. Bligh, published in The Beaudesert Times (Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia) of Friday 5^th April 1918:

Whilst the infantryman has every respect for the artillery they are sometimes accused by the former of “drawing the crabs” or enemy shell-fire on a comparatively quiet front, and the same term is applied to any movement of troops likely to be observed by the enemy.

* A.I.F.: Australian Imperial Force.

2-: From a letter that Machine Gunner Harold Green wrote from France on Friday 22^nd February 1918, published in The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate (Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia) of Tuesday 28^th May 1918:

The existing conditions here are not nearly as bad as I had been led to believe. It certainly is not all beer and skittles. Neither is it all biscuits and bully beef—we do exceptionally well; plenty of bread, fresh meat, margarine, Tres Bon, jam, etc. Our comforts in regard dug-outs depend upon our own efforts, and with a few hours’ solid working one can ensure a comfortable “possy” for the time he is in. We derive much comfort from the Australian Comforts Fund, for the success of which we have to thank the people of Australia, upon whose efforts and sacrifices it depends. In some cases, through their efforts, we are provided with a hot cup of cocoa, biscuits and cigarettes under heavy shell-fire. They come in for more than their share of shells, on account of so many people visiting the dug-out to get a hot drink, and, as we term it, “drawing the crabs,” meaning, of course, shells.

3-: From an account of a battle which was fought from Saturday 30^th March to Friday 5^th April 1918 at Villers-Bretonneux, near Amiens, in northern France—account by a special correspondent, dated Sunday 7^th April 1918, published in The Sun (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Sunday 16^th June 1918:

DRAWING THE CRABS

I admire all arms of the service in battle, for none escapes torment and danger. But the gallantry of the machine-gunners exceeds all words. They must stay there, whatever happens. And their positions are the target for the worst of the shelling. As the men say in France, they “draw the crabs.” They and the trench mortars.

The earliest occurrences that I have found of the phrase to draw the crabs used in the wider sense of to attract unwelcome attention or criticism are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From a letter to the Editor, by ‘Front-Line Digger’, about the returned soldiers who received no war pension and were unemployed, published in The Queensland Times (Ipswich, Queensland, Australia) of Thursday 21^st April 1932:

Sir,—On the eve of Anzac Day, when we hear so many fine speeches concerning honour and glory of brave deeds and sacrifices made by the boys who left these shores to keep Australia a free and happy country, &c., I feel prompted to ventilate my opinion in regard to war pensions and unemployment and I think the majority of fair-minded readers will agree with me. From some quarters I daresay I’ll “draw the crabs”: that is only natural.

2-: From the obituary of Walter Henry Barnes (1858-1933), who had long been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, published in The Telegraph (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) of Monday 20^th February 1933:

Mr. Barnes never failed to “draw the crabs” in the House for he always severely attacked the weak spots of the legislation and administration of the Government. […] Oppositionists usually hit back at him severely but could never shake him off the track, and he prodded with the lancet of criticism.

3-: From an article about Rugby League, published in the Sydney Sportsman (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Saturday 19^th May 1934—this article mentioned the following two players: Victor Hey (1912-1995) and Les Mead (1909-1996):

There’s not a doubt in the wide world that club coaches are sending their teams on to the field imbued with the idea that they “MUST GET HEY.”
That’s tactics, but there is also the suspicion that men are told that Hey is to bite the dust whether he has the ball or not.
That’s not football.
The fact that Wests have found a counter move by letting Hey draw the crabs and then sending Mead across the line unopposed cuts no ice.
Touch judges stand charged with allowing players to get away with the grossest interference.
Coaches and players must be a dumb lot if they can’t see that they are putting a spanner into the works by slowing up the game by these illegal tactics.