Category Archives: Rob Katter
Robbie Katter tells Premier ‘no mandate’ needed only personal choice for vaxx
From Hansard October 27, 2021
Mr KATTER (Traeger—KAP) (4.54 pm): I rise to speak on behalf of the KAP against the government’s motion. The KAP has been quite clear on our position. We respect the job that any government is trying to do in rolling these vaccinations out.
From the start our message has been that we recommend that people consult their doctor or talk to their medical adviser and get advice from them and make their choice, and when they make that choice we respect that. We are a party that founded itself on personal freedoms and choices, so we are trying to be true to the principles that people voted for us on in that respect.
The government is faced with an extraordinary situation—we accept that—but there are some interesting points to reflect on in the context of this debate. I am told that childhood vaccinations are around 95 per cent, so no-one is holding a gun to their heads. When people trust the science and trust what people are telling them, they can make logical choices.
What we are consistently hearing is, ‘The more I’m being told by government I’m forced to do this, the more I don’t want to get it. I’ve got nothing against vaccinations.’ There is the question of trust here, because those of us in North Queensland have been fed garbage about tree-clearing science and we have been fed garbage about the reef science. Peter Ridd pulled out and was sacked for it, and no-one has proved him wrong.
No-one is game to even try to prove him wrong; they just got rid of him out of the job. This is all flawing the trust in government and the science. It underscores the fact that under normal conditions people reasonably would say, ‘Yeah, I’ll get the vaccination. I’ve got no problem.’ However, when the government starts forcing and saying, ‘This is what’s got to be done,’ that is when it is encountering problems.
The other issue I want to raise is that, on reflection for me, we are having trouble keeping hospitals open in the electorate. Julia Creek was downgraded and I am told that it still will not go back to a 24-hour service. We cannot get nurses into hospitals in some areas. Some extra staffing does come, but if not they are still told to rollout this massive health program. Someone said that it was only 20 per cent in Doomadgee. I rang up Doomadgee asking if there was a sentiment against it. I was told, ‘No, there’s not really a sentiment against it.’
Therefore, I made the assumption that they had not had proper exposure to getting either education or having the vaccine there available to them. Another family pulled me up in town the other week to say that their kids were given one day to go into Richmond to get it. They were told, ‘You’ve got to go on this day to get it.’ They said, ‘We’re mustering cattle. We’re busy. We can’t get in that day.’ Tough luck!
Then there is the question of health services. If we cannot even perform the primary health functions in regional and rural areas, how can we be expected to roll this out on top? Before the government starts mandating and enforcing this, it has to lift its game on the other things it can be doing. There is a lot more that can be done before forcing this down people’s throats.
Qld cops, teachers and nurses speak out in defiance of Covid mandates
By staff writers
A retired Queensland police officer says the Queensland Police Union “are a bunch of cowards” for not supporting its members over informed choice with the Covid jab.
The Queensland Police Union President and former officer Ian Leavers is probably best known for his controversial public comments a few years ago “…only police officers should be allowed to own firearms…” in Queensland.
This is the union, like a lot of others that has become part and parcel of the Queensland Labor Party government. Perhaps the most outstanding, recent example of union and government solidarity was in Melbourne last week when many thousands of paid-up CFMEU members took to the streets in defiance of the corrupt Daniels’ regime of forced jabs and the union’s leadership being in bed with the corrupt Premier Andrew Daniels. Melbourne is now proving to be a Chinese Communist Party enclave after it was discovered last year the Victoria Labor Party was in solid partnership with the Chinese government.
Speaking on the podium with leader of Katters Australian Party, Robbie Katter, veteran cop Phil Nataro was scathing of the union which he said was once a very powerful body.
He said it was none of the government’s business if he was vaccinated or not.
“I shouldn’t have to tell anyone if I am vaccinated or not, it’s a personal choice,” Mr Nataro told the news conference.
“That’s what this is all about. Now we have unprecedented bullying and segregation in the police force and it needs to stop and someone in the executive leadership team has to grow a head and say enough is enough.
“You can’t keep doing this to your members.”
Representing the Teachers Union Tracy Tully and nurse Margaret Gilbert also castigated the Labor government for forcing union members out of their jobs over a lack of informed consent.
Ms Tully said the Public Service in Queensland and Australia was abusing its power and the Westminster system of government.
“They are not following the rules and regulations and they must consult comprehensively and they must provide risk assessment which they are not doing.”
Citing the hypocrisy of the current double standards when the Premier refuses to mandate the jab for politicians, Mr Katter said the motion would be designed to test whether “what’s good enough for the goose was good enough for the gander” in Queensland.
Mr Katter said all levels of government had pushed the boundaries on individual choice, personal freedom and civic liberties over the last 18 months in the name of the pandemic.
He said one of the worst examples was elected leaders’ silence on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for State’s 15,000-strong police workforce and 90,000 Queensland Health employees.
To date, Education Minister Grace Grace has not ruled out mandating vaccinations for Queensland teachers and early childhood educators.
“While the KAP has encouraged all Queenslanders to have a conversation with their doctor about getting the vaccination, we are staunchly opposed to vaccine mandates,” Mr Katter said.
“In particular we have an issue with the way people’s employment and their fundamental need to earn an income has been used coercively to demand they comply.
“Our offices have been contacted by people right across the State, many who are employed in the policing and nursing professions, who feel very strongly about the importance of choice with relation to vaccines – however they feel they are unable to speak out.
“Yet at the same the requirements that have been forced on to our police, our nurses and health care workers, possibly our teachers and many in the private sector, are not required of politicians.
“We feel this smacks of double standards and arrogance and would like to know what justification the Premier and Opposition Leader have for their silence on this.”
Mr Katter said if the Parliament was unwilling to mandate vaccines for politicians, it should immediately ban double-jabs being required for other workers.
Katter will vote against euthanasia laws
Statement from Robbie Katter MLA regarding proposed Euthanasia Legislation
I am opposed to euthanasia law reform in Queensland.
While myself, and my Katter’s Australian Party colleagues plan to review the Queensland Law Reform Commission’s report into the subject as well as the legislation that will be introduced today, it is highly likely we will be voting against it based on principle.
I am of the belief that creating and preserving life is, and should remain, the most primary endeavour of our society and our governments should reflect this.
It was a dark day in Parliament for all three state KAP MPs when Labor’s limitless abortion laws passed in 2018, and those celebrating in the House caused us even more concern.
While I understand there is great complexity and emotion around issues of life and death, we do not believe the legalisation of suicide (even with the strictest of conditions) is the answer.
The need for a better focus on and improved funding for palliative care services for all Queenslanders through a purpose-built palliative care system has been overlooked as part of the debate around end-of-life.
Palliative Care Queensland, the peak body representing the sector, has decried that current funding arrangements equate to only about 1 per cent of the overall State health budget.
This is grossly inadequate to meet the care needs of dying Queenslanders and their loved ones.
They have requested an additional investment of $275 million per year – around $53 per person – to directly improve the quality of life for terminally-ill Queenslanders of all ages.[1]
Further, in a state with a myriad problems that are as fundamental as access to critical health services like dialysis, CT scanners and mental health support for rural and regional patients, I find it perverse that we are having this debate as those issues continue to fester.
Death will come to us all and it is never easy, but all Queenslanders, including First Australians who overwhelmingly abhor the idea of legalising euthanasia, deserve far better than this.
Woke culture in curriculum being forced onto young students places too much emphasis on Black Lives Matter
All lives matter – time for more parents to start home schooling
Albert Facey’s autobiographical tome A Fortunate Life would become required national reading in Years 7, 8 or 9 as part of the Australian Curriculum in a proposal floated by the KAP to prevent the further “woke” ideological indoctrination of today’s youth.
The draft changes to Australian’s national education doctrine were revealed last week and have led to heated debate.
The new national plan, which must be signed off on by the state and territory governments, effectually cancels any positive mention of Judeo-Christian tradition and frames the birth of modern Australia as an inhumane, colonial conquest that has led to continued Indigenous dispossession and oppression.
Islam is mentioned in the new curriculum eight times, but Christianity just five. Liberalism, the West’s defining ideological principle since the 17th century, is hardly mentioned at all.[1]
However the KAP said there was one quick fix that would create some balance – introducing Albert Facey’s poignant, and quintessentially Australian, book.
KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said few youth of today would be able imagine the hardship the author, born in 1894 in Melbourne, had faced and overcome in his life.
Albert Facey’s father died when he was two, then his mother deserted him. He started work aged eight and being denied an education, grew up illiterate but later taught himself to read and write. [2]
He survived Gallipoli but lost two of his brothers there and suffered terrible pain because of injuries he sustained. He married and had a family, but one of his sons died in World War II.
Despite all this, the retired pig and poultry farmer decided to term his life story A Fortunate Life when he sat down at his kitchen table to write it in the early 1970s.
Mr Katter said contemporary Australia was so far removed from the reality of lives like Albert Facey’s, even though he was around until just a few decades ago.
“Mr Facey’s book is one I read when I was young and something I have revisited over the years – it is an incredible story and a very good lesson on perspective that many of us could do with these days,” he said.
“History is not for those who have an ideological agenda, and it is not there to be twisted to indoctrinate our kids – it is for remembering in all its complexities and learning from.
“Young Australians are being perpetually taught to be ashamed for simply existing, whether the topic is climate change and their involvement, racism or some other systemic inequality – they are being falsely led to believe the world has never been in a worse state and it’s all their fault.”
Mr Katter said Albert Facey was a self-described “Labor man” who believed the party stood on the side of the workers.
“I am not sure what he would think of the Labor party we have today,” he said.
The KAP believes the book should become mandatory reading for English students in Years 7,8 or 9 – while the book is sometimes currently used in schools, it is not mandatory.
The Australian National Curriculum serves as a framework for all Australian educators and students, but the new draft curriculum has been publicly criticised for being ideological and abstract. Further it proposes to delay teaching primary school kids core maths concepts, and places a greater focus on sex and relationship education in the early school years.
[1] https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/how-the-west-was-airbrushed-from-history/news-story/9eedf4d5fbe09bf83c7355b0a6b6dc1c
[2] https://journey-and-destination.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-fortunate-life-by-ab-facey-1894-1982.html
Games bid by bankrupt Qld Labor will hit regions hard
Regional health, road and bridge network crisis will suffer even more
Katter’s Australian Party MPs have described the $1 billion redevelopment of south-east Queensland’s Gabba stadium, announced today as part of the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games bid, as “gluttony of the highest order” that will further entrench neglect of Queensland’s regions.
Despite state debt levels rising to around $130 billion in the next four years, the Palaszczuk Labor Government is pushing on with pre-emptive and extravagant social infrastructure spending in preparation for glitzy event.
Brisbane has not yet been officially awarded the 2032 Olympic Games, however the International Olympics Committee (IOC) named the city its preferred host city in February.
It’s understood the plans for the Gabba are contrary to the IOC’s proposal to use existing facilities to reduce host city costs, and that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is still waiting for the Prime Minister to confirm what federal funding will be provided for the proposed event. [1]
The cost of hosting the Olympic Games is notoriously unpredictable, and budget blow-outs well into the billions are normal.
The upcoming Tokyo Olympics is expected to cost at least $15.4 billion. [2]
KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said while the Olympics were a wonderful event that most people loved to watch; Queensland’s already precarious economic position meant there was little joy to be had in taxpayers having to stump up the costs.
“I don’t want Queenslanders having to live through the next 12 years of deficits in hospital and road funding, education investment or any other services needed west of the Great Divide,” he said.
“There is actually a health crisis in rural and regional Queensland but that doesn’t seem to be a priority for the Government, their priority is hosting a big party in 10 years’ time that almost no one else in the world wants the responsibility of holding.
“This is not the panacea of prosperity for the people of Queensland, it is re-building from the ground up our core industries across the entire state and starting with the regions.”
[1] https://inqld.com.au/insights/2021/04/20/wheels-within-wheels-inside-the-delicate-balance-behind-our-olympic-venues/
[2] https://apnews.com/article/tokyo-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-tokyo-olympics-japan-olympic-games-3c46bce81928865d9aae0832b5ddd9e3
Chinese military heading for Daru Island and the Torres Strait
LNP and Labor trying to attract foreign investment at the expense of our own industries. The LNP’s love affair with China is getting more intense
Katter’s Australian Party is demanding an immediate response and action from both State and Federal Governments regarding a Chinese company’s multi-million-dollar plan to encroach on territory 3 klms from Australia’s northern border.
Robbie Katter warns the State and Federal Governments they must act to halt this dangerous militarisation of the Torres Strait. China wants to build a $39 billion complex on PNG’s Daru Island 3 klms from Australian waters. Naturally the Chinese being honorable people would never think of making the proposed port and industrial facility a military installation. Their so-called fishing boats are equipped with the most sophisticated surveillance equipment available today.
Hong Kong-registered company WYW Holding Limited has lodged plans to build a new city on Papua New Guinea’s Daru Island, just kilometres from Australia’s border, which would include a seaport, resort and business and commercial zone.
It follows the revelation just three months ago that PNG signed a memorandum of understanding with a separate Chinese company to assess establishing a multi-million-dollar fisheries park on Daru.
“The PNG Government is saying it doesn’t know anything about the plans to build a city on Daru, but a letter was addressed to Prime Minister James Marape early last year from the Chinese company involved, and the Government is saying it won’t stop a big foreign investor from coming in and benefiting the locals,” KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said.
He condemned the plan as disgraceful and demanded a response from the Palaszczuk Government on whether it would advocate against the proposal.
“This is outrageous and I want to hear from our State Government as to whether it will advocate against this emerging encroachment on territory so close to our border,” he said.
Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter had called on the Foreign Minister to intervene and will use the next parliamentary sitting to ask the Federal Government what it’s doing to protect the region, known as one of the world’s busiest shipping routes and location of strategic importance to Australia and PNG.
Chinese warships could be a familiar sight in northern and eastern Torres Strait if the PNG Government allows them onto Daru Island
In the drawn-out wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Robbie Katter said it was essential that all levels of government committed to stabilising Australia’s assets and building up the sovereignty of the nation.
Last September, Mr Katter condemned the Federal Government’s preposterous plan to give foreign companies tax breaks to invest in Australia, claiming it would leave local industry dead in the ditch.
“I am appalled and flabbergasted by Peter Dutton’s announcement to offer enticements to foreign investment rather than save dying local businesses in our own backyard,” he said at the time.
“The KAP has been urgently calling for incentives and subsidies to ensure the survival of local industries, particularly manufacturing.”
The same month, the KAP called on both State and Federal Governments to pressure the Foreign Investment Review Board to stop the sale of now-liquidated Queensland mining company CuDeco Limited to China.
KAP intends to raise the issue of WYW Holding Limited’s plans to build a city on Daru Island when Parliament resumes at the end of the month.
Fruit rots in north Qld while 20,000 live on Jobseeker
By EDITOR, CAIRNS NEWS
NORTH Queensland MP Bob Katter has sounded the alarm about a massive undersupply of fruit picking workers in his electorate, despite the fact that some 20,000 people in the same region are on the Jobseeker allowance.
Katter has called on the Minister for Agriculture and Acting Minister for Immigration to intervene immediately to help provide an estimated 15,000 farm jobs available in the Cairns hinterland region in a few weeks, during the peak season. Fruit on orchards in the region is already dropping off trees and rotting on the ground.
Katter says there are similar figures elsewhere in Queensland which is prompting the industry to question why their fruit is being left to rot when thousands of idle workers are receiving the dole.
“The Government’s response to Covid-19, whether good or bad, has left us with a serious lack of willing workers in north Queensland which is impacting industries that hold our communities together,” Mr Katter said.
“The Minister needs to explain why fruit is being left to rot on the ground in far north Queensland when there are 20,000 people in the area on Jobseeker allowance.”
Mr Katter has suggested a three-prong approach to alleviate the worker shortage problem:
- Abandoned, cyclone damaged, resorts to be renovated and used as quarantine hubs for incoming overseas workers.
- Remove the mandatory quarantine requirements for incoming workers from Samoa and Vanuatu, where there is no Covid-19 transmission.
- Nationalise the social welfare job allocations, which has been run disastrously since it was privatised.
“The privatisation of human services and job allocation has been disastrous for jobs because it means these people can get away with doing nothing whereas they couldn’t before. There’s no accountability now,” he says.
“Whether it is Mackay mining contractors, farmers in Tully, or Taxi drivers in Cairns or Townsville, the complaints are coming in from everywhere and the Government is left with no alternative – the Department of Human Services needs to be back under government control.”
Mr Katter has spoken to numerous farming organisations that have supported his call for intervention, particularly in lifting the restrictions on South Pacific Islander workers and the reignition of backpackers to fill the jobs.
“I’m told that the Pacific Islands are Covid-free, and north Queensland is Covid-free. So why are these workers being forced to quarantine here at the cost of the farmer?
“The farmers I have spoken to are simply asking for the restrictions on South Pacific Islanders to be lifted like with New Zealand which allows a reliable coming and going of the workers.
“Under normal circumstances, the backpackers comprise 50 per cent of the fruit pickers in north Queensland which is a region that produces 20 per cent of Australia’s fruit and vegetable supply. But due to border closures, the number of backpackers available is dwindling by the week.”
Contact: Hon Bob Katter MP, Federal Member for Kennedy
Canberra | Phone: 02 6277 4978 | Fax: 02 6277 8558 |
Mount Isa | Phone: 07 4743 3534 | Fax: 07 4743 0189 |
Innisfail | Phone: 07 4061 6066 | Fax: 07 4061 6566 | Freecall 1300 301 942|
Qld Nationals long gone, only Liberals wearing Akubras remain
LNP in love with Greens. Queensland as we know it will disappear
The LNP’s gifting of preferences to the Greens ahead of Labor should come as no surprise but is nonetheless the final death knell on the former National party’s allegiance to rural and regional Queensland, Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has said.
“The Liberals have well and truly won over the old Nats; and these are Liberals who appear hell-bent on selling their souls,” Mr Katter said.
Speaking on the confirmation by Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington that the LNP would preference the Greens above Labor in all 93 Queensland seats at the upcoming State Election, Mr Katter said there had been no real Nationals in Queensland politics for a long time.
Robbie Katter warns the LNP that giving Greens their preferences will see a Greens minority government which will stop all development
“In the interest of playing politics and boosting their chances of taking office in the tower of power on George Street, the LNP has betrayed everyone outside south-east Queensland,” he said.
“The LNP’s former leader Tim Nichols best stated why the LNP should put Greens last and the KAP agree with his reasons completely.
“According to Tim, and the reasoning for which he provides very publicly on social media and the internet, the Greens are: anti-jobs, anti-farmers, anti-small business, anti-property rights, anti-school choice, anti-health choice, pro-death duties, pro-carbon tax, pro-higher electricity prices and pro-more government intervention.”
“Can the Opposition Leader tell us why she thinks that Tim Nichols is wrong, and why her path is right?
“Why does she disagree that the Greens are anti-jobs?
“Why does she think that the Greens are not anti-farmers and small business?
“Why does she give support to a party that is pro-carbon tax, pro-higher electricity price and anti-coal?”
Mr Katter said while he understood the age-old rivalry between the major parties, the LNP’s decision to effectively back the Greens during what has been heralded the most important State Election in decades was narcissistic and reckless.
He said it was likely both Labor or the LNP would need to seek support from the cross-bench to form government after October 31, and that handing extra seats to the Greens could be the end of Queensland as we know it in a balance of power situation.
“The fact is that the LNP is a Brisbane party and it is not surprising that it has all come to this,” he said.
“We already know that the LNP will not support financially coal-fired power stations and that the LNP voted against a motion that the KAP pushed for, which called on governments to treat coal the same as renewables,” Mr Katter said.
“The LNP Member for Callide Colin Boyce put the interests of his electorate first and shocked us all last month when he voted with the KAP, One Nation and Jason Costigan against the mining commissioner/reef approvals legislation, which is even more lead in the saddle for miners and farmers.
“However it was the LNP who ignored the interests of regional Queensland and pandered up to the inner suburbs of Brisbane once again.
“This will be the last straw for many long-suffering LNP supporters who have put up with the LNP’s drift away from its values and its supporters to the point that it is now unrecognisable.
“What we need to know is what else the LNP will give away.
“We know that Labor is ready to pander to the extreme Left if needed; but now it would appear we have much of the same from the Opposition too.
“The LNP are ‘cityslicker wolves in sheep’s clothing’, and they should be ashamed to show their faces north of the Sunshine Coast.”
Mr Katter said the KAP had always put the Greens last on its how-to-vote cards and would do the same in the 2020 Queensland Election.
“If people want to be certain that they are putting Greens last and voting for a party which will not deal with the Greens, they should look to the KAP,” he said.
Premier Palaszczuk, Jackie Trad and Warren Entsch do not give a damn about the Far North; let it burn!
Updated
These politicians refuse to partition North Queensland from Coronavirus
Far North Queensland Coronavirus tally stands at 19 confirmed, imported cases in Cairns and Hinterland
Gun shops in Qld and WA closed
Cairns ALP MP Curtis Pitt has jumped into line with Comrade Premier Palaszczuk(left) opposing the separation of North Queensland to prevent any more Coronavirus infections from the Brisbane hotspots. Pitt also opposes forming a separate North Queensland state
These politicians don’t care if North Queenslanders live or die from Coronavirus. Top left to right: Deputy Premier Jackie Trad; Federal Liberal Member for Leichardt(Cairns) Warren Entsch and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. While the Far North has only 21 confirmed cases of Coronavirus, now is the time to shut the gate.
Speaker of the House and Member for Mulgrave (Cairns) has joined the ‘hate North Queenslanders’ throng by opposing the annexure of North Queensland to keep out Coronavirus.. He told the ABC the boundary being suggested by KAP leader Robbie Katter and many others is the proposed boundary for the new State of North Queensland. Therefore he opposes it. There is no doubt voters who survive the epidemic will remember this if they get to vote again.
These disingenuous politicians do not give a damn about North Queensland. In spite of urgent calls from the medical profession, local government, residents and politicians, Comrade Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Comrade Deputy Premier Jackie Trad refuse to separate North Queensland from the Coronavirus hotspots of south east Queensland.
Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter has demanded the State Labor Government cut off North Queensland at Marlborough, Central Queensland before any more infected travelers from the south afflict an as yet largely healthy population.
Close the gun shops
Instead a terrified State Government responded by ordering the closure of all gun shops.
Northern gun dealers have reported record ammo sales and an unusual spike in gun sales.
But the horse has bolted. Gunshops are on their last stocks of ammunition and if the Labor Party thought hoarding dunny rolls was awful, they had better remember there are more than 600,000 registered gun owners in Queensland and at least another100,000 unregistered.
Queensland gun dealers have reported record sales because the public have been terrified by the controlled media about further lock-downs and martial law. Governments would do well to recognise there are more than 600,000 registered gun owners in the state and around 100,000 unregistered owners. The hoax has been imposed upon the west by a wily China whose Coronavirus ‘epidemic’ might not be all that it seems according to independent reports and videos getting out of the communist state.
Rolling out the army to keep tabs on those quarantined with Coronavirus has now branched into the military manning road blocks on all entrances into Cape York Peninsula, west to Kowanyama and south at the Gulf Developmental Road turnoff at 40 mile scrub, about 45 minutes south of Mt Garnet.
All of these roadblocks will be situated in Bob Katter’s electorate of Kennedy.
Has anyone heard if the federal government has sought permission from the Governor General to declare martial law?
Some politicians are more caring about North Queensland than the urbane Labor Party of the south east.
North Queensland Federal Members Michele Landry, George Christensen, Phillip Thompson and Senator Matt Canavan have backed Bob and Robbie Katter’s demand to separate the northern part of the state before there are any more infections.
These worthwhile Members have much more on their minds than the next state election which the Labor Party is predicted to lose.
Gone Batty: “KAP announces ‘Bat Re-Stocking’ Proposal
19 February, 2020
KAP ANNOUNCES “BAT RE-STOCKING” PROPOSAL
Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) has today offered to devise a plan to safely export hundreds of thousands of Queensland flying foxes to New South Wales with no option for “return to sender”, as part of a proposed “Bat Re-Stocking Program”.
Rob Katter MP Outside Sunset Lawn Cemetery Mt Isa which has been a bat house for years
The announcement follows the news that hundreds of bats were flown on a private plane for care at Queensland’s Australia Zoo following the recent NSW bushfires, and that local populations on the ground were likely to have taken a hit during the natural disaster.
It also follows an announcement by Australia Zoo that its ‘flying fox intake’ had sky-rocketed by 750 per cent due to the effects of drought in Queensland, followed more recently by the import of bats to Queensland affected by the NSW/Victoria fires.
While obviously a tongue-in-cheek proposal that should in no way been taken too seriously, the KAP is using this opportunity to call for some common sense to be injected into the way the State Government and Queensland communities handle flying fox populations.
KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said for too long Brisbane had failed to acknowledge through legislation the effect huge populations of flying foxes are having on the towns they inhabit.
Regional communities across Queensland have in recent months been battling with plague proportions of flying foxes, with hundreds of thousands of the animals roosting in urban towns like Charters Towers, Townsville, Ingham, Cairns and Mount Isa at any one time.
More recently, new reports circled that SEQ was also expecting a “flying fox invasion” of upto 600,000 bats, highlighting that no community is immune to the unsustainable numbers seeking refuge in urban areas.
Mr Katter recently made the Minister for Environment and Science, Leanne Enoch, aware of the bat import situation.
He has called for the Minister to detail if the State Government supported the import of bats from interstate and also asked her to clarify if any state money had been spent on the exercise.
Mr Katter said he has no personal issue with flying foxes, but believes it is ludicrous that Queensland’s Nature Conservation Act 1992 has enshrined their rights to the point that their well-being is routinely being prioritised ahead of people.
He said the latest news of the import of bats to Queensland was a symbolic slap in the face to the communities which have been battling plague proportions of the animals for weeks, months and in some cases, years.
Premier Palaszczuk to legislate against the Bradfield Scheme with ‘pristine rivers’
Drastic changes to the Lake Eyre Basin Management Plan, proposed by the Queensland Labor Government under new “Pristine Rivers” legislation, could crucify future development in north and western Queensland, Katter’s Australian Party MPs have warned.
Environment Minister Leanne Enoch announced a review into the basin’s management plan just before Christmas, saying the “proposed framework will increase protections for streams and floodplains in the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin”.
The Marxist Queensland Labor Government is set to legislate pristine rivers which will prevent drought proofing Queensland and halt the Bradfield Scheme
Feedback is required by late January, but the public is not allowed to participate in this process.
KAP State Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said the secret proposal, the details of which have so far only been shared with invited stakeholders, could lock up almost of third of Queensland and make much of the state’s prime mining and agricultural land untouchable.
He said the misguided move, aimed at shoring up Labor’s green credentials in Brisbane ahead of the 2020 State Election, would also rip away all economic opportunities open to a vast portion or rural and remote Queensland.
“The Labor Government has time and time again smashed regional, rural and remote Queensland with legislation that suits them in Brisbane but rips opportunity and autonomy away from us,” Mr Katter said.
“So far this term they have given us the reef regulations and the tree-clearing laws, all because of the need to keep feeding the green monster in Brisbane.
“Now this ‘Pristine Rivers’ proposal is their third attack, and it’s being launched ahead of the election campaign.
“All the KAP can say on behalf of these northern and western areas is that we are sick of being the sacrificial lambs to win Green votes in Brisbane.
Queensland Premier Comrade Annastacia Palaszczuk is set to legislate against the Bradfield Scheme to gain Green votes in this year’s state election
“There is nothing to stop the State Government right now adjudicating on any development, mining or otherwise, that is inappropriate in an area or detrimental to the environment.
“This is regulation for regulation sake, and like the tree-clearing laws it will be politically-based and centred around flimsy science.”
Mr Katter said it was ludicrous to think that the Labor Government, which is presiding over a huge deficit and high unemployment rates, would put a blanket ban on development across large section of the state.
“Quite frankly, Queenslanders need a new deal for the regions because the current state of affairs is simply not good enough,” he said.
“If they want a fight on this, I will say bring it on because the KAP will give them one.”
KAP Member for Hinchinbrook Nick Dametto said, if the proposed changes were to go ahead, Queensland could never be drought-proofed.
“We have heard a lot of talk over the last few months from the major parties about their plans to ‘drought-proof’ Queensland,” he said.
“If this ‘Pristine Rivers’ legislation gets up, you can kiss that goodbye.
“You can kiss goodbye: any style of the Bradfield Scheme ever taking off, any chance of drought-proofing Queensland and any chance of building an agricultural sector on the other side of the Great Dividing Range which would help western Queensland prosper.”
The KAP said it believes the current review and the “Pristine Rivers” proposal was a broad re-hash of the previous, controversial Wild Rivers legislation that was first introduced by Premier Peter Beattie in 2005.
The party has called on Premier Palaszczuk to make the Lake Eyre Basin Management Plan proposal available to the public, and to extend the timeframe allowed for consultation.
Watch out for rabies-infected flying foxes
State KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has implored human health and safety be prioritised, calling for the potentially life-saving treatments given to anyone scratched or bitten by a flying fox to be readily available in flying fox hotspots.
Mr Katter wrote to Townsville Hospital Health Service chief executive Kieran Keyes after a concerning incident on December 26, 2018, whereby a 12-year-old Charters Towers boy was scratched in a local park.
Flying foxes are in plague proportions in north Queensland causing incalculable damage to fruit crops and infecting humans and horses with rabies.
The boy was initially seen at the Charters Towers Hospital but was later sent to Townsville where he was treated with rabies immuno-globulin and a course of rabies vaccine in order to prevent the Australian Bat Lyssavirus.
Following this media reports were circulated that the boy had to travel to Townsville because the treatments were not readily available at the Charters Towers Hospital.
The THHS released a social media statement saying rural hospitals like Charters Towers had the rabies vaccine, while the rabies immunoglobulin was stored at the Townsville Hospital and could be couriered out within 48 hours, or the patient could go and get it in Townsville.
Mr Katter said this just wasn’t good enough.
“Charters Towers’ issues with flying foxes are long and documented,” he said.
“For a long time the State Government’s attitude to helping us deal with the flying foxes has been to create awareness of any of the health risk they pose.
“I am very aware of how dangerous the Australian Bat Lyssavirus can be and also know that following a scratch or bite, every hour delay in getting those vaccines administered is a risk.”
Mr Katter said while it was estimated only around 1 per cent of flying foxes carried the virus, this was large number when you considered the plague proportions they were in at times in Charters Towers.
“Just over a year ago we had 200,000 bats in the centre and across the town – that could be 20,000 bats carrying a deadly virus in extremely close proximity to people and their homes,” he said.
“I don’t intend to be alarmist, but it is common sense to me that, in rural places like Charters Towers and Ingham where bat populations are high, these vaccines should be available on the ground.
“If it is a matter of budget, then the State Government needs to make sure it is providing enough funding to cover any costs that the hospitals accumulate to ensure these treatments are available when and where they are needed.”
Cairns News 