Bring the backpackers back, says Katter
February 14, 2022
AS Australia’s international border reopens, Kennedy MP, Bob Katter, says any new tourism campaigns aimed at overseas tourists must have a specific focus on attracting backpackers, and the process of getting into Australia must be streamlined.
North Queensland’s economy has traditionally had a major reliance on backpackers as they fill key hospitality, farming and tourism jobs.
Unlike other overseas workers, backpackers also spend most of their wage back into the local community on activities like skydiving, pubs and nightclubs, cafes, scuba diving and white-water rafting.
Mr Katter is seeking a meeting with Federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan at parliament this week to persuade him of the importance of targeting the backpacker market, and to ensure that the process of getting working holiday visa holders into the country is fast and rubber stamped. .
“I have had discussions with five of the leading tourism operators in the Cairns region and there is no doubt in my mind that $1b dollars has been wiped out from the hit to tourism,” he said.
“We are hardly getting a single dollar from tourism now and no backpackers is hurting everyone tremendously.
“We’ve seen 30 years’ of hard work to create the Far North Queensland tourism industry destroyed overnight. At its height the Cairns region attracted Hollywood film stars like Bo Derek & Lee Marvin, Prime Ministers and Premiers, but that’s all been wiped out. The Queensland Government, a bunch of pygmies, and the cowardice of Canberra have a lot to answer for.
“Our economy depends on tourism, sugar cane and other fruit and vegetable farming. So, the injection of money for advertising is imperative. There’s a lot of noise being made but we need a marketing campaign that targets backpackers.
“North Queensland’s natural wonderland sells itself, but let’s remind these people we exist.
“You can fly over a crocodile on a flying-fox as I did in Cairns, dive on the reef off Mission Beach, fall in love with the beauty of Paronella Park, kayak at Babinda, white water raft at Tully, chase waterfalls on the Tablelands, or party at Micky Nasser’s pub in Atherton.”
Paronella Park owner Mark Evans says he’s heard there is a strong demand for Australia’s working holiday visa, with around 30,000 applications approved or
pending, but the process of getting in must be streamlined.[1]
“We are desperately short of workers, so are the farmers, and so are the café and pub owners,” he said.
“There’s clearly some demand there, now let’s get the backpackers back in. These people will be coming from all over the world so the Government must make it as easy as possible.”
-ENDS-
8 September 2026: A bold plan to reverse the plunging birthrate by recognising the value of unpaid care has been rejected by Government in favour of incentivising more working parents of our “vanishing race”, warns the Father of the House of Representatives and North Queensland MP of half-a-century, Bob Katter. In addition to asking for a $75,000 payment per birth, the Federal Member for Kennedy this week asked the Treasurer in Question Time to help families crippled by the cost-of-living crisis with taxable income-splitting to boost disposable incomes for spouses raising children on a single wage by about 10 per cent on average. But instead of acknowledging annual tax relief of about $8000-$10,000 for struggling families with a single wage-earner on $80,000-$150,000 a year – which would boost household budgets between 9-12 per cent 1 – the Treasurer claimed income-splitting would “disincentivise” women’s workforce participation, leaving them “economically dependent” on men, and “cost the budget substantially” to deliver the “lion’s share” of benefits to “higher wealth” families whilst “denying” those in lower tax bands. Mr Katter accused the Treasurer of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” by dismissing outright the long-overdue “fairer family tax” policy with the introduction of a $75,000 payment for all new mothers “to spend as they see fit – from putting food on the table to investing in superannuation for their future”. “Families cannot make ends meet,” Mr Katter told the Treasurer in reference to average household debt at over $300,000 or $400,000 for under-50s, with the hyper-inflated cost-of-living now crippling 25 per cent of parent couples on a single income who suffered the “appalling inequality at tax time” that leaves a stay-at-home mum and three kids struggling by on $15,000 per person, whilst double-income-no-kids (DINKS) enjoy disposable incomes of $75,000 each. “Surely, family income-splitting makes taxation fairer, whilst a $75,000 birthing payment would help arrest Australia's plunging birthrates,” he pleaded in the Parliament. Mr Katter said the Treasurer’s devaluing of unpaid work further betrayed all parents “who bear enormous responsibility for raising our nation’s future generations to advance Australia fair”. “The Treasurer’s righteous virtue-signalling this week in the Parliament – supposedly on the side of women who quite reasonably want to be paid for their work – in turn infantilises mothers whose endless work for their family remains unpaid, like many carers, when the choice either way should be in women’s hands,” said Mr Katter. “Instead, Australian mums and dads are financially penalised when only one parent is paying income tax – which is really the only productivity measure that the Treasurer truly cares about. “But while he’s crying poor on an estimated $3 billion annual cost of income-splitting to the budget bottom line, he’s spending five times that subsidising the private childcare industry to boast about the benefits for women in the Kennedy electorate who can be on endless waitlists or have zero local early childhood places. “And when you tally the cost to taxpayers of about $14 billion propping up commercial childcare plus another $5 billion a year in parental leave – not to mention an estimated $20 billion in means-tested Family Tax Benefits – it puts into perspective the estimated $22 billion cost of an upfront $75,000 bonus for fewer than 300,000 births a year, to help lift Australia back up to relative post-war boomer rates.” Projections of the compounding benefits of lifting birthrates from below 1.5 to above the 2.1 replacement rate, align with an Australian population reaching 80 million with one million births annually in a century 2 . “I want 80 million people in this country so our industries can operate on economies of scale; so we’re not doomed to repeat the history of ‘a people without land seeking for a land without people’,” said Mr Katter. ENDS
Katter hosts public meeting to fight for fair representation
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One of my two closest friends in Parliament, Vince Patrick Lester OAM (1939-2026) was the classical underdog in every sense of the word. Brought up by his struggling mother, the bell boy and a baker’s apprentice with no secondary education was the kid born with nothing. Vince was an extraordinary MP consistently delivering for his electorate – whether it be the Great Inland Highway or a local community centre. Every Australian should be inspired by Vince Lester – Always polite, never arrogant. Always fighting for the little people. May God’s blessings be upon Vince – a good bloke. Bob and Vince Lester pictured with the 8th Bjelke-Petersen Cabinet.
Yesterday I tabled in Parliament a motion that highlights the huge value of Australian agriculture and calls on government to protect it from imports. The treat is real… we have countries that a desperate to get into the Australian market with product that will decimate Australian farming communities and lead to high supermarket prices in the long-term. We must force the Australian government to better protect our fresh produce.
The “Isa” is Australia’s economic future. Surrounded by one of the world’s richest minerals province, rich pastoral lands and within a region of north Australia that has access to nearly half of Australia’s surface water - the ‘Isa’ is destined for big things. However, infrastructure is needed to unlock this vast wealth and opportunity. Bob’s submission to Mount Isa Transformation Study highlights these opportunities and outlines some of the key infrastructure requirements.
Today we honour the Australians who served during the Vietnam War. We remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, those who returned home carrying the scars of their service, and the families who stood beside them. For many Vietnam veterans, the recognition and respect they deserved was far too long coming. Today, we say thank you for your service, your courage and your sacrifice. Lest We Forget.
Throughout Australia our Post Offices aren’t just a luxury… for many, they are essential. Often they are the heart, soul and lifeblood of our country towns. A Senate Committee is currently looking at the future of our post offices - we’ve put in a submission highlighting the integral role of our post offices, fighting to ensure they remain open across Australia and continue to provide this vital service. To all the posties out there… thank you for keeping us connected.
Is government seriously that tone deaf that it would permit the sale of 22,000 hectares of prime agricultural land to foreign investors????? UNFORTUNATELY .. the answer is YES . Our government has allowed the sale of a huge “Rushy Lagoon” property in Tasmania. THIS PROPERTY is roughly one-and-a-half times the size of Washington, D.C. (17,700 ha), and would fit roughly 30,800 international soccer pitches. THIS PROPERTY at capacity runs 85,000 DSE dairy and beef cattle. THIS PROPERTY employs hundreds of locals and supports the entire economy of the towns throughout the region. THIS PROPERTY is key to the sustainability and self-sufficiency of Australia’s domestic beef and milk markets. The INTERNATIONAL PURCHASERS want to turn it all into a “pine farm” - sacking staff and destroying the local economy, but also depriving Australia of the agricultural and wealth generation that comes with such a large agricultural enterprise. Ignoring the pleas from locals, government has rubber stamped the sale. AUSTRALIA WE MUST WAKE UP!!!! WE MUST FIGHT AGAINST FOREIGN LANDLORDS!!!! IT MIGHT NOT BE HAPPENING IN YOUR BACKYARD NOW…. BUT IT WILL BE SOON!!! AUSTRALIA IS NOT… AND SHOULD NEVER BE… FOR SALE!!!!
8 July 2026: North Queensland Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has demanded the Federal Agriculture Minister make public the “deeply concerning” findings of Government investigations into imported peanuts for Australian farmers “who every right to know whether their industry has been exposed to a biosecurity threat”. After meeting with the Federal Minister in Canberra last week, Mr Katter has formally requested in writing the Department of Agriculture’s full transparency on the results of investigations, alongside an immediate halt to peanut imports where Australia's biosecurity cannot be guaranteed. "Australia has strict biosecurity rules for a reason. They exist to stop dangerous pests and diseases getting into this country before they destroy Australian agriculture," said Mr Katter. "However, having been advised by the Minister last week of intensive investigations into imported peanuts – including the germination testing of particular significance – my office has now received evidence confirming germination of the samples collected for laboratory testing… which raises very serious questions because if peanuts can germinate, they are raw.” Mr Katter said the results indicating germination in all peanut varieties tested had raised fears imported peanuts are not undergoing necessary processing to eliminate raw biosecurity threats. "The Australian peanut industry is rightly worried about diseases that simply do not exist here – such as the devastating peanut smut in overseas crops which, once established, slashes yields by up to 75 per cent. Once these diseases are in Australian soil, there’s no magic wand to get rid of them." Mr Katter said reports the imported raw peanuts were being offered for sale nationwide reflected the extent of the potential national biosecurity risk “that we've seen again and again and again... We warned governments not to allow imported prawns because white spot disease would get in. We were ignored, and white spot came in. We warned about citrus canker. We warned about black sigatoka. We warned about papaya fruit fly. We warned about Panama disease. “If you believe governments have the best interest of Australian farmers at heart, then you believe in the tooth fairy – while they continue to gamble with Australia's biosecurity and food security to look after their precious ‘free’ trade agreements.” Mr Katter said where there was genuine uncertainty about whether imported peanuts complied with Australia's biosecurity requirements, “they should not be coming into this country until that uncertainty is resolved. You don't wait until the disease arrives, before you lock the gate." ENDS
