from Jim O’Toole

Farmers in Bob Katter’s Kennedy electorate have been warned the Liberal candidate in the upcoming election has agreed with Labor’s intention of halting all land clearing in Australia.

Liberal Frank Beveridge, along with a Labor hopeful, at a candidates forum held in Mareeba two weeks ago said he was “100 per cent behind” Labor’s harsh clearing laws.

LNP candidate for Kennedy Frank Beveridge supports Labor’s proposed national clearing ban which will bring agricultural production to a halt within a few years

Some members of the audience expressed astonishment at hearing a Liberal candidate support clearing laws which had brought the state to a standstill and mercilessly prosecuted farmers through the courts for knocking down a tree or shrub in their paddocks.

Mareeba is a large farming and grazing district to the west of Cairns which has supported Bob Katter for decades as a true representative of rural Queenslanders who has consistently opposed Labor’s stringent vegetation management laws.

Katter said the Labor Party and now it seemed the Liberals had no interest in the rural sector and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad would like to see it closed down forcing farmers out of business.

Meanwhile Lakeland farmers after a meeting with government representatives have reported that the State Government plans to further penalise farmers by charging them licence fees to cultivate their fallowed paddocks.

Whatever happened to freehold rights which the duopoly has trashed?

State Leader of Katters Australian Party Robbie Katter said the next election would see Labor lose its majority by KAP getting at least three more members elected.

He said his team would be in a powerful position to clean up the ALP and LNP mess by reversing draconian legislation.