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KAP tells state Labor, LNP to pull their fingers out and do some real work
STATE Parliaments across Australia have not only become platforms for the new medical dictatorships, but their role to create, scrutinize and pass legislation has been undermined by the same crowd pushing their daily fake case numbers and vaccination figures.
In Victoria MPs have been shut out of parliament if they haven’t taken the shots and in Queensland, according to Katter’s Australian Party MPs, the major parties have been doing little to nothing for months on end.
KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter says rural and regional MPs are sick of travelling down to Brisbane for sitting weeks to do “basically nothing”. “We have more interesting and worthwhile discussions down at our local pubs,” he said.
Mr Katter said the minor party, which has three sitting MPs and 1.5 parliamentary staffers, has committed to introducing a minimum of five pieces of legislation into the House each year.
This year, the party has already introduced the Environmental and Other Legislation (Reversal of Great Barrier Reef Protection Measures) Amendment Bill 2021, the Working with Children (Indigenous Communities) Amendment Bill and the Food (Labelling of Seafood) Amendment Bill 2021. There are also another couple in the works.
“Politicians need to work for their supper,” Rob Katter said. “Sitting hours have been cut back, we have less and less speaking spots and time for genuine debate and there’s also hardly any legislation – let alone decent legislation – on the agenda.
“But now the KAP is committing to lift the game and counteract that – we want to deliver more for not only our own electorates in the north, but for the whole State.”
Despite having approximately 220 parliamentary/ministerial staff, Labor has introduced just 20 Bills into the Parliament this year. The LNP, which has about 10 per cent of the Government figure in terms of staff, has introduced zero.
Mr Katter said taxpayers were footing the bill for all these staffers, and there was no way they were getting ‘bang for buck’. “The KAP was vehemently opposed to the introduction of four-year parliamentary terms because we said if the Government can’t succeed in fulfilling their agenda in three years, then they don’t deserve another one,” he said.
“We have been vindicated now by the lack of activity of the last 12 months. We are all losing out because we now have to witness a non-performing government have free reign for four full years every term.”
Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto said the LNP’s recent legislative record had been dismal. “Queenslanders are looking for an alternative government and they are looking for an opportunity to decide who to back at the next State Election,” he said.
“The fact is, unless you’re showing people what you’re willing to put in from the Opposition or the cross bench, how can you prove what you would be like if given the power? This is a call-out to the LNP – we are calling on the Opposition to start lifting their weight.
“What we’re seeing now is a lazy Opposition and it’s letting this government get away with putting 20 Bills in a year when the average is 40-50.”
Hill MP Shane Knuth said KAP had a proven track-record of successfully pushing legislation through the Parliament that benefitted rural and regional communities.
Qld Labor Party will not force MP’s to get jab but enforces it for most public servants
MP Robbie Katter hits out at Premier’s hypocrisy – is she afraid of another jab?
The Queensland Labor Government has denied the Queensland Parliament an opportunity to debate the double standards it is presiding over which give MPs freedom of choice around COVID-19 vaccines while allowing jab mandates to be enforced in other workplaces.
To date, the State’s 15,000-strong police workforce and 90,000 Queensland Health employees have been subject to vaccine mandates that have required workers to either comply or be forced out of a job.
The Education Minister Grace Grace has not yet publicly ruled out requiring vaccinations for Queensland teachers and early childhood educators, and mandates are already in place across the private sector. This includes in the aviation and transport industries.
Today Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter attempted to move a motion in the Queensland Parliament, calling on the Palaszczuk Labor Government to intervene in workforce vaccine mandates unless it requires all State politicians be vaccinated.
Citing the hypocrisy of the current double standards, KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said the motion was designed to test whether “what’s good enough for the goose was good enough for the gander” in Queensland.
Unfortunately it was voted down by the Labor Party meaning the debate could not even go ahead.
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 while the KAP’s position was to encourage all Queenslanders to have a conversation with their doctor about getting the COVID-19, and other, vaccines, the Party was staunchly opposed to vaccine mandates.
The text of the KAP’s motion was:
That this House agrees
- That all Queenslanders should be encouraged to get vaccinations, including COVID-19 vaccinations;
- That workplace vaccination mandates contravene fundamental rights of healthcare choice and access to employment free from discrimination and coercion because of healthcare choices;
- That breaching these rights through a vaccination mandate cannot be imposed by any business, government entity or authority without consent of the Queensland Parliament; and
- A breach of these rights may only be implemented when all Members of the Queensland Parliament are required to be fully vaccinated.
Mr Katter said it had been a disappointing day for democracy in the state of Queensland.
Labor hiding real juvenile crime figures which reveal a NQ epidemic
The Queensland Labor Government’s deficient response to North Queensland’s relentless youth crime crisis is being predicated on misleading facts and data about the severity of the situation, Katter’s Australian Party MPs have warned.
KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said since 2015 the cherry-picking of data had been Labor’s go-to response to any criticism levelled on the issue, demonstrating the huge disconnect between the Government and the communities affected.
As recently as last month Labor MPs were in Cairns spruiking a reduction in local youth crime of 13 per cent in the 12-month period to November, 2020.
In a Ministerial statement, Barron River MP Craig Crawford said the reduction was the result of Labor’s 24/7 co-responder teams, which had been rolled out in Cairns in May, 2020.
“What’s great about this $5.2 million initiative, though, is that it’s not only Cairns that’s benefited but other areas, including Townsville, Brisbane, Rockhampton and Logan and I understand it will be expanded to even more areas this year,” Mr Crawford said at the time. [1]
“It’s also just one part of the Palaszczuk Government’s five-point plan announced last year to tackle hardcore repeat offenders, and follows a record investment of more than half a billion dollars in youth justice reform.”
Minister for Youth Justice Leanne Linard also claimed, when queried by Mr Katter, that there was “evidence (Labor’s) reforms and investment are working”. [2]
“Between 2018 and 2019, there was a 13 per cent reduction in the number of youth offenders – down from 5,868 in 2018 to 5,099 in 2019 (769 fewer youth offenders),” the Minister wrote in her reply to the Traeger MP’s Question on Notice.
“Between 2019 and 2020, there was a further 16 per cent reduction in the number of youth offenders – down from 5,099 in 2019 to 4,304 in 2020 (795 fewer youth offenders).
Mr Katter said the 2019-20 year was a write-off with regards to analysing normal social data due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent state-wide lockdowns.
However Minister Linard said concerns raised about COVID-19’s impact on the data were irrelevant as “COVID-19 lockdowns occurred in only a portion of the 2019-20 reporting period”.
Even the Australian Bureau of Statistics, when detailing statistics from 2019-20 that showed youth crime rates across Australia were at their lowest recorded levels, warned that the data was compromised by COVID-19. [3]
Mr Katter said the news that Labor was “solving” youth crime in North Queensland was a surprise to him, and the majority of people in the region.
He said Labor was essentially playing “silly-buggers” with the facts, and that it was offensive the Government thought people wouldn’t catch on.
“Another day, and another statistic gets rolled out by our Labor MPs up here in the North or by the Ministers on George Street in Brisbane”, he said.
“I feel like the whole of North Queensland is getting ‘gaslighted’ by Labor – we tell them there’s a serious issue and we need help, and they tell us we’re wrong and find some obscure set of data to show us why.
“It’s outrageous, and we are all sick of the propaganda.”
According to official Offence Data (related to 10-17 year old child offenders), as published by the Queensland Police Service in their annual Statistical Reviews (2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17) and by the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office in their Crime Report, Queensland (2017-18 and 2018-19), the realities of the youth crime crisis in Queensland are as follows:
- 2015-16: 45,329 total charges were laid against child offenders (10-17 years old)
- 2016-17: 49,741 total charges were laid against child offenders (10-17 years old)
- 2017-18: 51,050 total charges were laid against child offenders (10-17 years old)
- 2018-19: 48,786 total charges were laid against child offenders (10-17 years old).
- No data has been made publicly available for 2019-20.
Further concerning figures, from the same data sources previously referred, show there have been the following youth-related offence increases in Queensland:
- Unlawful use of a motor vehicle offences have risen by about 59.9%, when comparing the 2,133 offences reported in 2014-15 to the 3,411 reported in 2018-19
- Unlawful entry offences have risen by about 27%, when comparing the 5,056 offences reported in 2014-15 to the 6,424 reported in 2018-19
- Other theft offences have risen by about 23.4%, when comparing the 8,581 offences reported in 2014-15 to the 10,588 reported in 2018-19.
Mr Katter said North Queensland had been left uninspired by Labor’s Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021, and that he feared crime would continue to erode quality of life for all communities without drastic action.
[1] https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/91689
2 https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/questionsAnswers/2021/88-2021.pdf
[1] https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/91689
[2] https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/questionsAnswers/2021/88-2021.pdf
[3] https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/recorded-crime-offenders/latest-release#youth-offenders
KAP only parliamentarians jerking the Labor Party into gear about disarmament
Community safety is being compromised as political elites and ideologues continue their war on licensed firearm owners, Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has told the Queensland Parliament.
Robbie Katter and his two other KAP members are the only state parliamentarians trying to stop UN disarmament being implemented by the ALP
Mr Katter said he and his fellow KAP colleague’s offices had received an unprecedented number of complaints and pleas for assistance from the public following changes made the definition of “Fit and Proper Person” in December.
The new criteria, spawn out of the Queensland Audit Office’s review into the regulation of firearms in the state, now places greater scrutiny on an applicant’s traffic history, health status and ability to successfully participate in bureaucratic processes.
This includes broad and ambiguous questioning that can result in a rejected license if an applicant makes a mistake or accidentally omits personal information.
Mr Katter said while the Weapon’s Licencing Branch was part of the Queensland Police Service, it was the Labor State Government who had to take responsibility for the system.
He said their political obsession with punishing those with a genuine need for a gun was risking community safety.
“I would challenge anyone to name a group that is more discriminated against than licensed firearm owners, and these laws are not doing anything,” he said.
MHR Bob Katter has been Australia’s most vocal gun advocate for decades. Bob says the LNP will take them even more quickly than the ALP attested by the lacklustre former Qld LNP leader Deb Frecklington, another solicitor, who lost the last election after she said she would further tighten gun laws
“After looking at the evidence, the only thing being achieved by all this effort from the Government is people like me and farmers are writing more letters regarding the constraints around us.
“We are not the problem; it is the illegal gun owners that the Government should be focusing on.”
Mr Katter said the decision-makers, including politicians and uniformed police from the Weapon’s Licencing Branch, were too far removed from the day-to-day reality of most licensed gun-users.
“These decisions are being made from an office from Brisbane but they have very real consequences for the people on the ground – there are people who need to use these things as tools,” he said.
“In most cases those deciding on applications do not even have a weapon’s licence, so outside of being a uniformed police officer they do not have any real-life experience with how this all operates in practice.
“The focus should always be on community safety, but this needs to be in terms of the evidence of where firearms are genuinely needed”.
The Traeger MP said the goal posts for weapon’s licence applicants were constantly being changed and were now essentially limitless.
“It used to be that five years was the limit where a person applying had to reveal anything on their record; now it is indefinite,” he said.
“A traffic offence from 20 years ago is now relevant and is counting against people.
“For those people who were getting their firearms licence, it is now either held up or they are just not getting it – all this thanks to a 20-year-old traffic offence that never counted before.
“It’s mischievous because the authorities already have all of that information, but they force people applying into admitting it.
“If they forget or make a mistake, they can be forced into a corner that results in the immediate rejection of their application through no genuine fault of their own.”
Mr Katter said while the current situation for licensed weapon-holders was dire, he’d had some preliminary and positive discussions with the State Government.
He said from these talks, there’d been an indication the Government was prepared to take action to restore some common sense to the system.
Shooters Union says recent audit of Weapons Licensing Branch was deeply flawed
by Jim O’Toole, Townsville Bureau
A DEEPLY flawed and mishandled audit of the Queensland Police Service Weapons Licensing Branch is the direct cause of this week’s data breach, according to the state’s leading pro-shooting organisation.
More than 1000 gun owners accidentally had their e-mail addresses shared visibly when a police officer sending a mass e-mail to shooters in the Moreton police district forgot to put the details in the “BCC” field.
Katters Australian Party leader Robbie Katter supports the Shooters Union pictured with SU President Graham Park during the 2020 election campaign
The incident made national headlines amidst concerns the security of thousands of firearms had been compromised by the error.
Shooters Union Australia President Graham Park said the incident was a direct result of a recent audit of the Weapons Licensing branch by the Queensland Audit Office, which was regarded as deeply flawed by the shooting community.
“This audit report, and in particular its recommendations, totally ignored the real issues facing the state’s Weapons Licensing Branch and firearms regulation framework, ignored the input of shooting organisations and firearms dealers, and instead blamed licensed, law-abiding shooters for police internal issues,” he said.
“It’s clear that in the wake of the audit, front-line and operational police are taking heat from management and political sources and being pushed to appear as if they are coming down on gun owners.
“That’s created a situation where, among other things, police feel compelled to e-mail more than a thousand licensed gun owners to remind them of firearm security matters, as part of an effort to appear proactive and ‘doing something’ about managing firearms in the state.
“As we’ve seen, it only took an unintentional and easily made, but potentially devastating, error to compromise the data and security of a thousand gun owners – all in the name of politically motivated busywork.”
Mr Park said Shooters Union had conducted its own investigation and the information available clearly showed the mishandled audit had sparked this incident.
“There is no doubt in our minds this data breach is directly related to the Audit,” he said.
“Everything we know about how the Weapons Licensing software works indicates it was only a matter of time before an event like this happened, and this flawed Audit has been the primer that’s set it off.”
Cairns News has a few basic policies and one is for all firearms to be dropped from the register. The register has proven to be highly inaccurate and is of no use in fighting crime because 99 per cent of licensed gun owners do not commit crimes. Katters Australian Party too has a similar sensible policy. Remove the registration of firearms and 300 police officers could actually do some policing in the Far North starting at Townsville where runaway crime has ruined many lives.
The Labor Party has no answers and for Labor candidates north of Rockhampton to be re-elected suggests to us Dominion and China indeed had a hand in the Queensland election result.
After all the Labor Party sent the Queensland Electoral roll to China three months before the election.
What for?
One Nation placed second on Katter how to vote cards
The Katter’s Australian Party and One Nation have announced they will place each other as the number two position on their how to vote cards in an alliance to reflect the major party neglect of Queensland.
KAP leader Robbie Katter said the Liberal and Labor major party dominance had clearly failed regional Queenslanders and that the time was now for much needed change.
“For far two long the major parties have continued to sell off our assets, pushed green ideology and failed to invest in regional job creating mega-infrastructure projects,” Mr Katter said.
Robbie Katter has placed One Nation second on KAP how to vote cards after the Liberal National Party announced it would preference Greens ahead of Labor
“Queensland can’t afford another four years of major party dominance, we know it doesn’t work, enough is enough, times up.”
Mr Katter said the KAP would put the Greens last in all seats.
“The LNP are preferencing the Greens which highlights how out of touch they have become.
“If there is a result of the LNP deal that ends up with a Greens controlled government this looks like no dams, no coal and more crime.
“We can’t risk the Greens grabbing a seat, it’s a major threat to the future of North Queensland.”
Mr Katter said the only way the majors can learn their lesson is that if people don’t give them their vote.
“Both the LNP and Labor are Brisbane based parties and the evidence of this is beyond clear,” he said.
“Up here in the north the LNP they say they are pro coal, yet down in Brisbane they tell everyone they are anti-coal, the truth is they are preferencing the Greens and they can’t have a bet each way.
“Ultimately our preferences are up to the voter, the how to vote card is just a guide.”
Mr Katter said other Westminster democracies who had more than a duopoly party dominance had a better governance of their citizens.
“Stronger minor parties means politicians have to actually fight for your vote in order to make a difference.”
LNP betrays bush again votes with ALP, Greens to shut down coal-fired power
Weipa miner Metro Mining today made a shock announcement it was shutting down its flagship Cape York Bauxite Hill operation which came hard on the heels of the Liberal National Party joining with Labor to shut down cheap coal fired power for Queensland.
Metro said it would shelve its Skardon River project 100 klm north of Weipa until April next year due to its inability to renew contracts with China amid a slumped world alumina market.
Metro Mining’s Weipa bauxite operation in mothballs until April
The closure will see 50 Cape York Aborigines and Islanders lose their plant operation jobs which will significantly impact local communities. The mine employs another 160 fly-in employees,
Yesterday saw the LNP vote with Labor and Greens to curb Queensland coal mining and to drop support for coal-fired power.
Katters Australian Party leader Robbie Katter put forward a motion to provide Queenslanders with the cheapest electricity possible by ceasing costly renewable power mandates, subsidies and investment programs available to inefficient wind and solar generation to ensure coal and renewables competed on a level playing field.
The LNP is supporting Labor to achieve its renewable energy target of 50 per cent by 2030, a move Mr Katter says will kill power dependent industries in the state.
LNP Leader the hopeless Deb Frecklington (left) and ALP Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk like peas in a pod voting together with Greens to kill coal power
Mr Katter said the LNP Opposition’s stance on coal was akin to former Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten.
“They tell us in North Queensland they support coal, but when it came time to nail their colours to the mast in Parliament, they squibbed it,” he said.
“They are giving preferences to the Greens in Brisbane-based seats at the upcoming election so it hardly surprises me that they have voted this way. But they can be sure the people of regional and North Queensland will remember that the LNP betrayed them when they walk into the polling booth on October 31.”
Mr Katter said coal played an important part in the economy and now and into the future, providing $3.8 billion in wages, $4.4 billion in royalties last year, accounting for 0.1 per cent of Queensland’s land mass, $52.5 billion gross regional product in 2918-19, 15 per cent of the total GDP over the whole of Queensland, and 11 per cent of employment.
“Regional Queenslanders feel like the Government has been their enemy for so many years. Go out there and try and start a coal mine or water project from scratch—it is not very easy.”
Member for Hill Shane Knuth said electricity prices continued to go up because there were zero coal-fired power plants in North Queensland.
“Collinsville was the last coal-fired power station in North Queensland, and it had five coal-powered steam turbines with a combined generation capacity of 190 megawatts of electricity,” he said.
“However, a solar power farm which was built on adjacent land in 2018 now generates only 42 megawatts of electricity. The Collinsville power station had families who lived, worked and sent their kids to school in Collinsville and the generator saved hundreds of millions of dollars in lost transmission and kept electricity prices down.”
Member for Hinchinbrook Nick Dametto said the KAP wasn’t against renewables, but wanted the State Government to put a stop to solar and wind subsidies that made regional power prices soar.
“Wind, solar and hydro projects are getting all the benefit from the subsidies for renewable energies, yet we have a project sitting in the middle of the Hinchinbrook electorate ready to go—the NQBE (the North Queensland Bio-Energy Corporation)—which has no government backing,” he said.
“They have been offered a little bit of money to go towards the development of the project—about $1 million was ear-tagged—but there is not a cent to go towards making sure that this project has longevity and the legs to get up.
“NQBE offers dispatchable power and supports the sugar cane industry but can’t get a cent. That’s because the Government’s renewable subsidies are driven by ideology and not economics.”
LNP deserts industry and farmers by switching off the lights with green power
Economic oblivion is on the horizon for Queensland with the LNP appearing to have joined Labor in their ideological journey on energy policy, State KAP Leader and Traeger Robbie Katter has warned.
Mr Katter said in an unanticipated, but perhaps unsurprising, development the Queensland LNP had gone all in on the ideological energy debate.
He said it was clear in their submission made to the Federal Senate Enquiry into the “prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia”, that the Queensland LNP party were more interested in ideology than looking at all options, both short and long-term, for delivering the cheapest and most reliable energy for Queensland households and businesses.
Robbie Katter warns the LNP has gone soft on peak load power for industry and jumped onto unreliable green power with the Labor Party and Greens.
The Traeger MP said although the LNP was entitled to whatever opinion it wanted, it appeared the party was now “playing it safe” on energy and was prepared to go all in on renewables.
“I’m disappointed, but not really surprised, that the LNP are taking such a narrow view on energy,” Mr Katter said.
“I think the most important thing for delivering good energy policy is being willing to look at, and accept, any option that delivers the cheapest and most reliable power.
“It looks as though the LNP have lost their mettle and caved into the irrational ideological fear that now drives our energy debate.”
Mr Katter said the energy system was complex and having an uncompromising position on particular sources of generation was a waste of time and money.
“The electricity system is incredibly complex and it is stupid to think that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ renewable or coal position will bring down electricity prices,” he said.
“We need to look at all options for dealing with the short and long-term problems in the electricity system and nothing should be off the table.
“In some circumstances thermal generation is going to be the best option and in other circumstances renewables are going to be the best option, and if there is long term opportunity to use nuclear then that shouldn’t be off the table.
“The KAP is only focussed on ensuring prices are as low as possible and we will back any solution that delivers that outcome.
“For the North, that’s building CopperString to unlock the cheap renewable resources around Hughenden and connect the existing gas-fired generation in Mount Isa to the east coast grid.
“In central and south west Queensland the solution may be to commit to extending the life of existing coal-fired power stations, which will send the right market signals and give energy-intensive businesses the confidence to make longterm investments.”
Mr Katter said the KAP’s policy on energy was simply to ensure prices were as low as possible which included the removal of the regulatory asset pricing model approach that artificially inflates customer costs.
This will effectively take power bills back towards cost, removing the large tax that the government takes out of each bill.
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.
Moving electorate office sends wrong message to regional Qld: Katter
The decision by Member for Cook Cynthia Lui to move her electorate from Mareeba to Cairns is the latest slap in the face from Labor to rural, regional and remote Queenslanders, State KAP Leader Robbie Katter has said.
Mr Katter said while there were great challenges faced by MPs who represent large electorates, he was astounded that the Member for Cook had backed down from a pre-election promise and opted to move her office to Cairns.
Cairns is not in the Cook electorate.
The Traeger MP said Ms Lui’s relocation decision flew in the face of fighting against service centralisation and giving smaller communities a genuine voice in the Queensland Parliament.
He said he was not surprised by reports that Mareeba locals were up in arms about the move.
“In the interest of taking a stand against centralisation, I would like to call on the Member for Cook to reverse this decision,” Mr Katter said.
“Regional Members of Parliament like myself and Ms Lui need to send a clear message to smaller communities that they matter and that their voices will be heard,” he said.
“Relocating from Mareeba is one thing, but moving to Cairns which is not even in the Cook electorate sends a terrible message to the people of the North.”
Mr Katter said the State Labor Party had a shocking track record of removing services from the bush and ignoring the views and voices of rural communities.
“It is my experience that as an MP in these types of electorates, you need make a point of going to the people you represent and not waiting for them to come to you,” he said.
“I clock up tens of thousands of kilometres every year and spend many days and nights away from home because I get out of my office and am on the road or in the air trying to get to people.
“The KAP is fighting to keep services in the bush, meanwhile the Palaszczuk Government, with their own representatives, are taking services away – even a humble electorate office is not immune.
“This is astounding.”
Cairns News 