Category Archives: bob katter
Coal and climate change drain the swamp of Labor politicians
by Jim O’Toole, Townsville bureau
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is reeling after the Labor Party lost every federal seat north of Brisbane at last week’s election. Fed-up voters elected only one ALP senator for Queensland.
In a fleeting visit to Cairns on Friday to shore up its four state ALP MP’s, the Premier allocated just 15 minutes for each one to air their grievances.
Comrade Premier Palaszczuk discovered on Monday morning after the federal election that coal was not so bad after all
Pundits claim stalling on the Adani mine approvals and scaremongering over fictitious ‘climate’ change’ by the Labor Party turned voters away in droves from their federal candidates.
Even the hard-nosed, anti-coal mining Deputy Premier Jackie Trad joined with the Premier’s change of heart and discovered on Monday morning after the election that coal was all right after all.
These two hypocrites will battle to hold seats north of Brisbane at the next state election and rightly so as every city and all regions north of the Sunshine Coast, except the coal mining depot of Mackay are experiencing severe economic downturns.
Katters Australian Party warned during the federal campaign that every Labor- held state seat north of Rockhampton would be contested by its candidates, with some already campaigning in the regions.
Bob Katter’s spectacular result in the sprawling electorate of Kennedy left the LNP and ALP candidates speechless after he increased his margin by 2.5 points to 65 per cent easily retaining the vast cane, cattle, mining and tourism region.
Bob Katter has warned the Queensland Premier due to her alliance with the de-industrialising Greens she is likely to lose all Labor-held state seats north of Rockhampton
Although recording substantial results without spectacular numbers were KAP’s five other federal candidates who were bypassed by panicked voters in an effort to keep out the Labor Party.
Party polling officials in the hotly contested, marginal seat of Leichardt which extends to the PNG border some 1500 klms to the north of Cairns, were warned by Voting Australia to be on the lookout for voting fraud.
In the last federal election 18,000 voters across the nation were found by the Australian Electoral Commission to have recorded more than one vote.
No action was taken by the AEC against this fraud.
Just a small percentage of these dud votes would have enabled Liberal Party candidate and incumbent member Warren Entsch to get across the line.
In spite of numerous requests from voters to Prime Minister Scott Morrison prior to the election to ensure the AEC implemented the recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters for compulsory identification, the AEC confirmed no ID requirements were enforced at polling booths.
KAP introduces FNQ senate candidate
KAP Federal Leader and Federal member for Kennedy, Bob Katter was joined today in Cairns by Robbie Katter, KAP State Leader and Daniel McCarthy KAP candidate for Leichhardt to officially launch Queensland Senate candidate, Joy Marriott.
North Queensland cattle producer and fruit grower Joy Marriott is a passionate Queenslander who is committed to developing Regional Australia. She has previously held positions such as President of the Cape York Peninsula Development Association and the National Councillor on the Cattlemen’s Union Australia.
KAP senate candidate Joy Marriott and Bob Katter in Cairns. Ms Marriott is the only genuine Far North Queensland candidate to nominate for the senate to date.
Joy will be campaigning to lower the cost of living for all Queenslanders particularly those most vulnerable such as retirees and pensioners and small businesses by reducing electricity and fuel prices.
She will also be campaigning for water security through her support of major water infrastructure projects, the creation of jobs through nation-building projects and by supporting industry, including mining. Joy feels passionately about protecting and fighting for our famers and wants to ensure a better future for all of regional Queensland.
If elected Ms Marriott said she would open an electorate office in Mareeba, FNQ.
For a fair deal for regional and rural Queensland, vote 1 for KAP and Joy Marriott.
Cairns Post newspaper – no news by omission
by Jim O’Toole, editor-at-large
Lachlan Murdoch’s trademark Far Northern Queensland rag, the Cairns Post, is well known for not covering the real news. It does a great job by publishing its version of daily events often far removed from the real deal.
The editorial content of major dailies is driven by the biggest advertisers.
In the case of News Ltd the largest contributor to their contracting coffers is the grocery duopoly Coles and Woolworths.
Followed by the banks are all three levels of government and national car dealership display ads.
Since the advent of Gumtree and other internet advertising kingdoms, classified line ads have been savaged.
Murdoch is feeling it across the nation as internet news, often more plausible than his columns of opinion and skewed, socialist scribble take a big hit. The Australian is a notable exception.
No news by omission is another favourite.
Tabloid publishers have always claimed their display ads have to occupy 60 per cent of every edition to be viable, unless some cashed up national advertiser takes out lucrative, full pages.
The volume of ads determines the number of pages for each edition.
The Weekend Post of February 23, is indicative of dwindling advertising revenue. There are almost no national advertisers and only a few local ads for products and services. More importantly, for News Ltd, there are few government ads. Coles and Woolworths are conspicuous by their absence.
Is this a sign of the times? For the local economy it certainly is. The Far North has been dragging the economic chain for years while in the not so distant past, News Ltd has sucked hundreds of millions of advertising dollars from struggling businesses in the Far North.
For some advertisers there is no discernible benefit. The Townsville and north western floods will impact the northern economy for a decade casting an even deeper shadow over the small business sector.
Murdoch has other regional tabloids locked in his stable which often perform better than the Cairns Post. That’s because News Ltd has devoured almost all independent regionals throughout the nation. Any that might have been missed have gone to the Fairfax opposition.
Cairns Post editor Jennifer Spilsbury toes the government line when it comes to political coverage.
Murdoch’s hand-picked Cairns editor Jennifer Spilsbury sits on the endless conveyor belt of scribes to be eventually disgorged by the New Ltd editorial monster.
In the heady days of Pauline Hanson and One Nation during the late 90’s any reporter then working for the Townsville Bulletin would remember when Lachlan Murdoch, in response to a favourable editorial by the then editor, rampaged through the newsroom.
“Kill the cow (Pauline Hanson),” he ranted. Then I was living near Townsville and this episode was related to me at the time by a friend who worked for the Bully.
I can’t remember the ultimate fate of the editor.
It more recent times it would appear a similar scenario is playing out at the Cairns Post with help from its former managers, by mostly running the Liberal line.
Rumblings among the business sector indicate some big players and a good deal of the smaller ones are sick and tired of the local Liberal member and his policy platitudes.
According to a media release from Katters Australian Party, Bob Katter and Robbie Katter announced senate candidates in Cairns on Friday. Cairnsnews got this release then one could assume, so did the others. A segment appeared on Win Television.
We remember a huge splash in the Cairns Post for the Labor senate candidate recently parachuted into Cairns from the Gold Coast.
This KAP show should have been a significant, newsworthy event for the Far North but a quick glance at today’s Cairns Post reveals nothing about the two Katters being present in Cairns.
There are assorted bits about fashion queens, council spats, irrelevant LNP crocodile yarns from the Gold Coast, sports beat-ups and Sams pies with Worcestershire sauce but not much about policies supporting the economic future of the north
Cairnsnews is not in the habit of making excuses for Murdoch mendacity but we will publish Friday’s political event in its absence from the hallowed pages of the Cairns Post.
After all, editor Jennifer Spilsbury makes the point in her opinion piece today:
“Newspaper companies are tasked with tackling very serious and important topics. Politics and crime to us is what roads, rates and rubbish is to councils.
But we do much more than that. We celebrate our way of life, proudly highlighting the very best of who and what we are and what we like to do.”
Commendable Jennifer, but what happened to the political news?
Katter and Hanson table bank reform bill initiating another inquiry
The Senate Economics Legislation Committee on 14 February initiated an inquiry into the Banking System Reform (Separation of Banks) Bill 2019.
This landmark senate inquiry was ignored by big media which preferred sensationalising the dust-up between One Nation’s James Ashby and its former senator Brian Burston in the halls of the senate.
from Citizens Electoral Council
This is a major blow for the banks, which had assumed that the Hayne Report from the banking royal commission, which did not recommended structural separation, would be the final word on the issue—bank shares soared on the news they wouldn’t be broken up. They celebrated too early, however.
Pauline Hanson joins forces with Bob Katter to separate bank industry superannuation and insurance from banking
On 12 February, a week after Hayne’s report became public, Senator Pauline Hanson introduced into the Senate the same bill that Bob Katter had introduced into the House of Representatives in June 2018. This bill was carefully drafted by the Citizens Electoral Council based on the USA’s successful Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and the updated “21st Century Glass-Steagall Act” bill currently before Congress, adapted for Australia’s financial system.
The bill separates traditional commercial banks that take deposits and make loans from all other financial activities. This solves the problems of both vertical integration—the gross conflict of interests involving banks advising their customers to buy products from other businesses the banks also own; and horizontal integration—banks mixing commercial banking with risky investment banking that puts customer deposits, and the whole economy, in danger. The bill also brings the failed bank regulator APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority) under much tighter parliamentary control.
Support
Bob Katter joins forces with Pauline Hanson to separate bank industry superannuation and insurance from banking
Bank separation has the support of most cross-bench politicians in Parliament, including the Greens, Centre Alliance, One Nation and independents. It is also supported by key backbenchers in all of the major parties. The Labor Party had said they would support it if recommended by the royal commission; however, sticking with that position is untenable. They know that Commissioner Hayne’s terms of reference forbade the investigation of “structure”, which Labor had intended a royal commission would have looked at. Also, even Labor’s senior statesman Paul Keating has strongly criticised Hayne for not recommending structural separation.
(Hayne’s recommendation against structural separation is a scandal: that section in his report includes a blatant lie, and experts familiar with public inquiries have accused Treasury of a “dirty trick” to rig the outcome in favour of the banks.)
Opposition
The opposition to separation comes from the big banks, the discredited regulators which are captured by the banks, and the leadership of the major parties who take huge donations from the banks. The banks wish to keep the parasitical structure that has enabled them to amass huge profits, not only through gouging their customers but also through gambling with their deposits, which they use to underwrite their huge derivatives bets that collectively amount to more than $40 trillion. There is a revolving door between the banks and regulators: high-powered executives from banks take key positions in the regulators, such as ex-UBS chief John Fraser taking over as Treasury Secretary in 2013-18 and former senior investment bankers holding six of the nine positions on the executive of bank regulator APRA; and regulators retire to plum banking positions, such as former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry becoming chairman of NAB and former RBA governor Glenn Stevens joining the board of Macquarie Bank. And not only do the big banks donate to the major parties, but so does the Australian Banking Association which lobbies for them, as do the Big Four global accounting firms which audit the major banks and have a track record of covering up dodgy bookkeeping by banks all over the world.
Make a submission
This inquiry is the chance for the Australian public to force the debate on banking separation that the royal commission was not allowed to have. The Senate Economics Legislation Committee is taking submissions from the public, so every concerned Australian should make a submission.
Here are some points to note about the Glass-Steagall principle of full banking separation:
- It works, as proved by its success for almost 70 years (1933-99) in America;
- It ends the conflicts of interests of vertical integration, which is the only way to ensure the misconduct exposed by the royal commission can’t happen again;
- It protects deposits from the dangers of speculation, which boosts confidence in the banking system;
- It stops banks from diverting credit into unproductive financial speculation, thus making more credit available for lending to neglected sectors such as small business, industry and farming.
The submissions deadline is 12 April, but don’t delay—make your submission today!
How to make a submission
Written submissions can be delivered to the Committee in two ways: 1) by physical post; 2) online.
- Post your written submission to: Senate Standing Committees on Economics
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Phone: +61 2 6277 3540
Fax: +61 2 6277 5719
Email: economics.sen@aph.gov.au
North Qld economy takes $500m hit with more than 250,000 dead cattle
KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has urged the Prime Minister in Parliament to commit to low-interest reconstructed debt through his Reconstruction Board Legislation to help farmers in North-West Qld who are facing the worst natural disaster to hit the cattle industry.
Up to 500,000 cattle have died and thousands of people are now without an income for years – all a consequence of the years of drought then devastating floods.
Mr Katter has been on the ground and seen first-hand the extent of damage; within a matter of weeks, most of the farmers’ entire livelihoods – many going back generations – have been wiped out. A whole economy and backbone of QLD agriculture has been devastated.
“The Mid-West and Gulf provides one tenth of the entire Australian cattle industry; beef is Australia’s fourth biggest exporter,” Mr Katter said.
“It is now decimated by droughts, flooding and the resulting terminal health conditions. With no stock, massive existing debt and hundreds of thousands of rotting carcases to clean up, farmers will have no capacity to pay their mortgage let alone restore and restock.
“I have asked the Government to commit to a Reconstruction Authority, cutting existing debt by 30%, providing finance at government interest rates
“Without this minimal action North Qld’s calamity, its misery, it’s human and economic hardship will worsen exponentially,” Mr Katter said.
The Prime Minister has said restoration of the Qld cattle industry isn’t about trying to prop up an industry that doesn’t have a future, it is an industry that has a massive future for Australia, and the Government needs to be there to support and re-build that cattle industry. He has assured Mr Katter there was a recovery and restoration plan and they would work to assure the cattle industry was going to be as great as it was going to be in the future – if not even greater and a plan will come forth from the Minister of agriculture to address these issues.
Mr Katter has been working tirelessly to help see the north west and Gulf through the greatest devastation known to the cattle industry.
Katter addresses the bank Royal Commission findings
Hon Bob Katter MP
KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy
will respond via Facebook video to the release of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry report, as the first politician who called for a Commission back in May 2015.
3:30pm (Qld time)
TODAY (Monday, 4 February 2019)
Staff will upload live video to Bob Katter’s Facebook page re his response to the report’s release and findings.
Please note, Mr Katter is unable to travel from his home in Charters Towers today due to extensive flooding in Townsville and throughout the Kennedy Electorate and the closure of the Townsville airport (hence the Facebook video).
Facebook @bobkattermp
Katter tips the bucket on corrupt banks and the equally corrupt Australian Banking Association
Timeline of the Banking Royal Commission and how it originated:
- End 2012 – Rural Debt Summit – Bob pressures the then Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan after a question in Parliament to act on spiralling rural debt. Bob pushes to form the Rural Debt Roundtable Working Group.
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- 7 May 2013 – Bob organises rural crisis meeting in Richmond, Central Queensland. Bob forms Gulf Cattleman’s Association to steer the meeting and actions going forward. Federal Member Barnaby Joyce as Shadow Agriculture Minister and (then) Chief of Staff, Matt Canavan attend. Former Senator the Hon Joseph Ludwig (Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) also attends. Focus on the crisis meeting is on debt, drought and live cattle exports. After the meeting is called, but prior to being held, on 27 April 2013 Swan and Ludwig announce concessional loans (in Queensland, administered by QRAA) – package worth $420m Australia- wide.
- 30 June/1 July 2013 – Indonesian Ambassador tours the Gulf with Bob. The next day, the Indonesian Ambassador flies to Jakarta to brief the President ahead of Prime Minister Rudd’s visit. Live cattle quota numbers are restored following Rudd’s visit.
- 28 Feb 2014 – Bob and Rural Debt Roundtable Working Group Chair meet with Australian Banking Association (CEO and bank executive members) in Sydney regarding rural debt and the Private Members Bill for a Rural Reconstruction Board.
- 5 December 2014 – Winton ‘Last Stand’ meeting called by Robbie Katter (Queensland State Member for Traeger and Bob’s son) where Federal Member Barnaby Joyce attends as now Minster for Agriculture and Water Resources. Radio and TV commentator Alan Jones is a special guest. From this, David Pascoe compiles a Facebook story about Charlie Phillott and the ANZ Bank , which goes viral. Following this meeting, Minister Joyce gives another $100 million in concessional loans and the ANZ puts a moratorium on foreclosing on any new drought-affected farmers for a year. Bob says he will name and shame banks behaving badly in the media and Parliament.
- May 2015 – After battling ANZ and other bank cases, Bob calls for a Royal Commission into the banks.
- 12 July 2015 – 60 Minutes airs story on Charlie Phillott and ANZ Bank.
- 30 August 2015 – Mike Smith’s (CEO of ANZ) apology to Charlie Phillott airs on 60 Minutes.
- 19 October 2015 – Queensland State Member for Traegar Robbie Katter is appointed Chairman of the Queensland Government’s Rural Debt and Drought Taskforce. The final report, released in in April 2016, made 14 recommendations including establishing a Rural and Industries Development Bank, a Farm Debt Reconstruction Authority, and a commercial Multi-Peril Insurance (income protection) product for all primary industries.
- 26 May 2016 – Queensland State Member for Traeger Robbie Katter introduces the Rural and Regional Adjustment (Development Assistance) Amendment Bill.
- 10 October 2016 – Bob introduces Banking Commission of Inquiry Bill 2016, as per election promise.
Federal Member of Parliament George Christensen comes out publicly saying he will support a bill by Bob.
- 27 March 2017 – New Bill introduced by Bob which has input from other MPs – People of Australia’s Commission of Inquiry (Banking and Financial Services) Bill 2017.
- November 2017 – Then Prime Minister Turnbull announces he will call a Royal Commission after the big banks give him the go-ahead.
- 25 June 2018 – Bob moves the Banking System Reform (Separation of Banks) Bill – legislation for Glass- Steagall separation of commercial banks from all other financial activities.
- 27 June 2018 – Bob attends the Banking Royal Commission public hearings and asks a question of the Commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC. Mr Katter interrupts proceedings to ask the Commissioner whether the banks’ failures will be properly fixed. The Commissioner concedes that public hearings into agribusiness lending will have to be extended.
- 4 October 2018 – Bob directly asks then Treasurer and now Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Parliament if he could assure the House that the Royal Commission would include the “carrion” – the receivers – and address the issue of a Reconstruction Bank. The Banking Royal Commission a priority in the 45th Parliament for Bob Katter.
Federal inquiry into Qld Labor’s iniquitous Vegetation Management Act
The House Standing Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources today launched a new inquiry(Dec 7) into the impact on the agricultural sector of vegetation and land management policies, regulations and restrictions, and called for submissions.
The Committee’s Chairman, Rick Wilson MP, acknowledged that the impact of land management and vegetation policies can be significant on the agricultural sector.
“Bushfires, expanding land use, and hazard management can dictate the future of regional, rural and remote land areas. The Committee’s inquiry into these issues is timely, given the current and impending natural disaster probability”.
The Committee will be inquiring into these impacts, with particular regard to:
- Past and current practices of land and vegetation management by the agricultural sector and regional industries;
- The science behind activities such as back burning, clearing and rehabilitation;
- The economic impact of vegetation and land management policies, regulations and restrictions;
- The impact of severe fires on the agricultural landscape, agricultural production and industry in regional, rural and remote areas;
- Factors that contribute to fire risk in regional, rural and remote areas; and
- The role the agricultural sector has in working with emergency services and forestry management officials in managing fire risk.
The Committee will be accepting submissions until Friday 25 January 2019.
Media enquiries:
Mr Rick Wilson MP (O’Connor, WA), Chairman of the Agriculture and Water Resources Committee
(08) 9021 2044
For background information:
Standing Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources
(02) 6277 4500, agriculture.reps@aph.gov.au
Australia for sale? Already sold!
KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter slammed the Government on foreign ownership in Parliament yesterday asking if there will be a new regime to stop selling Australia, or is it business as usual, Australia for sale?
Tensions mounted as Mr Katter listed the major foreign owned or run companies, stating that free trade means jobs exported, cheap labour imported.
Katter says there is not much left of Australia to sell. The LNP/ALP duopoly has already sold it. Will the last Aussie leaving switch off the solar/wind lights?
“The biggest farm in Australia ‘Van Diemen’s dairys’ is 0wned by China, the 2nd biggest ‘Cubbie’ owned by China, the biggest grain farms ‘Nicoletti’ owned by China, biggest farming aggregation ‘Kidmans’ controlled by China, the biggest of all, ‘Ord stage 2 & 3’ owned by China, Australia’s most strategic port, Darwin owned by China, Taxi Hire industry Uber foreign owned, the car manufacturing, glass, textiles, petrol, whitegoods – all gone overseas,” Mr Katter said.
“What has free trade done for us? It gave away the entire coal seam gas reserves of this nation; $23 billion a year was given away. We gave it away for six cents a gigajoule and we bought it back for $16 a gigajoule. In fact, it is cheaper to buy Australian gas in Tokyo and bring it back to Australia than to actually buy it in Australia. That was a magnificent free-trade deal.
“We freed up the wool industry–oh, what a magical achievement; it is now costing the nation $16 billion a year. Ethanol: ‘Oh, we must have a level playing field; we must have a free market.’ So while Brazil produces ethanol and provides a $4 billion cross subsidy to its sugar industry, we’re ‘free trading’, so we import $23 billion worth of petrol every year instead of producing one litre of petrol of our own, which, of course, we could do tomorrow with ethanol.
“Oh, and we wiped out the entire manufacturing industry of Australia. The car industry alone was $25 million a year. Just in coal seam gas, wool, ethanol and motor vehicles, we have lost $40, $50, $60, $70 billion in just five items.
“Do we have a new regime that won’t continue to sell off Australia, or is it business as usual – Australia for sale?” Mr Katter said.
Qld Premier should be stood down for breaking the law
State KAP Leader Robbie Katter has called on the Queensland Attorney-General to refer Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to the Director of Public Prosecutions over her sacking of KAP staff last month.
Mr Katter’s calls preceded news that Labor had this week used its numbers in Parliament to vote down an LNP motion that would see a special committee established to investigate the Premier’s behaviour.
Mr Katter said the objectivity of the Ethics Committee that the Premier had been referred to had huge questions around it.
Comrade Premier Palaszczuk should be stood down over public threats she made to Katters Australian Party and the removal of their staff
“Both major parties are compromised in this process, but particularly the Labor Party as each Labor MP on the Committee will be investigating their boss,” Mr Katter said.
“We’d be naïve to think that they won’t have that in the back of their mind when making recommendations.
“It’s vitally important that the Ethics Committee seeks impartial and independent advice from experts about the case.
“The CCC has said the Premier has breached the Criminal Code – if that doesn’t require significant punishment under our parliamentary standards I don’t know what does.”
A report handed down by the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission on September 27 found there was “prime facie” evidence the Premier had breached the Criminal Code by using the funding she had granted the KAP as leverage to influence the minor party.
Mr Katter said there was now great public pressure on the government to uphold the integrity of the Queensland Parliament, and that it was vital for the Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath to step in.
“The Director of Public Prosecutions has two tests to consider when taking on a prosecution,” he said.
“1. Is there sufficient evidence? The head of the CCC has said that there is a prima facie breach of the Criminal Code.
“2. Does the public interest require prosecution? The individual occupying the highest office in the state has acted illegally. If this isn’t in the public interest, I’m not sure what is.”
Mr Katter said he was astounded by the fact the Premier had refused to stand aside while the matter was being investigated.
“We all make mistakes and we all must be held accountable for those mistakes; if the same level of standards were being applied to the Premier now as she had applied to some of those in her Cabinet, she would have stood down,” he said.
“To me, that refusal is the height of arrogance and suggests that in our Parliament, some people can get away with things while others can’t.
“Unfortunately for the State Government, I don’t think Queenslanders are very accepting of that sentiment.”
This great Australian died by the hands of politicians in government. His quest to reclaim peoples rights to stop mining on farming land has now 80,000 fighters and growing by the hour.
