Blog Layout

Another wasted wet makes Katter feel sick

May 12, 2022

KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter, says every time he sees the Flinders River in flood, he gets a sick feeling in his stomach knowing that a new irrigation project has not been built in North Queensland in 30 years, and says it’s crucial that the Hughenden Irrigation Project (HIPCo) is built immediately.


Photos taken by Stewart Nielsen from his chopper near Hughenden, show the Flinders River running after this week’s weather system passed through.



The latest water licence process for the Flinders River is underway with the Hughenden Irrigation Project (HIPCo) vying for a major slice of the water.


The 160 gigalitre dam, which Bob Katter secured $180m in federal funding for off Prime Minister Scott Morrison, will provide water for 11-thousand hectares of irrigated, owner-operator, farming, moving up to 20-thousand hectares by the end of the decade. 

Mr Katter said it was crucial the latest water licence allocation went to the locals and not foreign or absentee corporations as it did in the last process.


“The State ALP allocated all the water allocations from the Flinders River to the AA Company, a foreign corporation, and Stanbroke, an absentee landlord corporation. The people of north west Queensland got nothing,” he said.


“I get a sickening feeling in my stomach watching that water flow downstream. We have the proposal drawn up, ready-to-go for HIPCo and yet the State Government’s track record is to give the water to big corporations, not the locals. We shouldn’t have to drain the artesian aquifer to get our water.


“The whole aim of HIPCo is to grow the population of inland Australia. We can repeat this irrigation model at Richmond, Julia Creek, Cloncurry and through the Gulf towns like Normanton, Burketown, Georgetown, and Doomadgee.


“The Greenies want us to live in cities because they ‘don’t pollute’. The cities are the best creators of pollution. You can see a city’s light and heat pollution from 20 kilometres away. We must populate the inland.”


Mr Katter said he will use any position of power after the election to demand timeframes for the construction of HIPCo and other North Queensland water schemes.


“I will act with damaging hostility if whoever forms government doesn’t meet the construction timeframes,” he said.


“They will just bury you in studies and reports, so we will be setting definite deadlines.


“The Federal Government can ride over the top of the State. Look at the Franklin Dams case or the Snowy Mountains, the Federal Government will prevail in a High Court constitutional challenge over dams.”


-ENDS- 

By Dominique Moon 27 Mar, 2024
WHILE earlier this month Australia’s farmers were sharing vulnerable stories with the Supermarket Inquiry hearings of their struggles to survive, this week the Federal Government has decided to move on taxing the agricultural sector further.
By Dominique Moon 27 Mar, 2024
KENNEDY MP Bob Katter is knocking over political dominos with the Prime Minister the latest elected representative affirming the North Queenslander’s demands for action against the major supermarkets.
By Arun Singh Mann 25 Mar, 2024
AUSTRALIA’S major parties have blocked debate on Katter’s Australian Party MP Bob Katter’s Reducing Supermarket Dominance Bill, which would have provided affordable groceries for families and a fair return for farmers.
By Dominique Moon 19 Mar, 2024
WHILE on separate ends of the political spectrum, Katter’s Australia Party MP Bob Katter is applauding the Australian Greens for its intent to introduce legislation forcing supermarket divestment in the Senate.
By Dominique Moon 18 Mar, 2024
BATTLING cancer for more than a decade, Mission Beach woman Lisa Laird is expected to be out of pocket for more than $60,000 unless she becomes eligible to access medication already listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
By Dominique Moon 12 Mar, 2024
KATTER’S Australian Party MP Bob Katter has slammed Nationals senator for New South Wales Ross Cadell’s “improper conduct” as the two men went toe-to-toe in a heated exchange at Orange, outside the Senate hearing on supermarket prices.
By Dominique Moon 12 Mar, 2024
PRESSURE is mounting on the country’s major political parties to intervene firmly and swiftly in addressing supermarket prices and market share, as independent crossbench MPs team up to introduce legislation which would significantly shake-up the behaviour of the grocers.
By Dominique Moon 11 Mar, 2024
KATTER’S Australian Party MP Bob Katter says he will not let governments get away with “criminal irresponsibility” by allowing a foreign mining corporation to dump carbon waste in the Great Artesian Basin.
By Dominique Moon 04 Mar, 2024
PRESSURE is mounting on both the Queensland and the Commonwealth Governments to intervene and immediately suspend works on a government-backed hydro project after an alleged misinformed explosion nearly killed three workers.
By Dominique Moon 01 Mar, 2024
AN estimated 95 per cent of Australia’s land mass is deemed “empty,” yet the Federal Government is choosing to inflame competition for housing and land in already overcrowded cities and regions, Katter’s Australian Party MP Bob Katter says, who recalls blocks of landing going for about $7000 each.
More Posts
Share by: