Katter congratulates Kennedy fighters for funding wins
January 8, 2025
KAP Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has congratulated the seven successful grant recipients for the Growing Regions Program - Round 2 and the Housing Support Program - Stream 2 grants for the Kennedy electorate, totalling over $50 million.
The Growing Regions and Housing Support grant programs are available to shire councils. The successful grant recipients for Round Two of the Growing Regions Program are:
• Boulia Shire Council was awarded $10.42 million for their Shire Community Hub, which replaces outdated and dispersed accommodation with a fit-for-purpose, multipurpose Hub featuring a multimedia library and resource centre, a post office and flexible spaces for visiting officials, commercial leases and cultural displays.
Boulia Shire Mayor Eric Britton said, "The approved funding for the Boulia Shire Community Hub will be a gamechanger in council enthusiasm and productivity. It will be the centrepiece of Boulia. We commend the support given to rural and regional Queensland."
• Burke Shire Council received $4.1 million for their Burketown Health and Wellbeing Precinct Stage 1 - Splash Park and Playground, including an amenities block.
Mayor of Burke Shire Council, Ernie Camp, said, "The kids and community will really benefit from this project. The chlorinated water will really help with mobility health issues as well. Hopefully the pool in stage 2 will be approved as well."
• Cloncurry Shire Council received just under $6 million for the Scarr Street Revitalisation Project and CBD upgrade, which will see upgrades and enhancements to footpaths, parking, stormwater, kerb and channel, water and sewer, shade and shelter, landscape and irrigation, as well as artistic works.
Mayor Greg Campbell said, "Always great to receive support from the federal government when the community is trying to build critical community infrastructure."
• Flinders Shire Council received $1.796 million for the Showgrounds Development, featuring a new multipurpose recreational hall with office spaces, kiosk storage space, and public toilets.
Mayor Kate Peddle said, "We are thrilled to receive funding of $1.796 million for Hughenden Showgrounds. This project, which includes a new workshop area, secretary's office, kiosk, and storage area, marks a significant upgrade to our current facilities—a heartfelt thank you to our community's champions.
"As the name 'Growing Regions' suggests, we are indeed a region on the rise, thanks in part to innovative projects like the CopperString initiative. This grant allows us to continue this momentum, enriching the lives of our residents by ensuring we are maintaining and improving the facilities that support us. I sincerely thank Minister King and Mr Katter for their support of this project; you have our gratitude.
"Our community thrives because of the tireless efforts of our volunteers who provide invaluable social and sporting opportunities. This grant is a testament to their hard work and dedication, ensuring they have the facilities needed to continue their amazing contributions.
"This grant is not just an investment in infrastructure but an investment in the spirit of our community. It symbolises our commitment to supporting the volunteers who make Flinders Shire a vibrant and welcoming place to live."
The successful grant recipients for Stream Two of the Housing Support Program are:
• Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council received just under $19 million to construct a new sewerage pump station and rising main in Balamba.
• Mornington Island Aboriginal Council received $1.8 million to construct road infrastructure to support the dwellings across two lots on Lardil Street, Gununa.
• Cassowary Coast Regional Council also received $10.3 million to deliver trunk infrastructure works at Eaton Estate.
In response to the grant wins, Mr Katter said small towns thrive off government grants and programs. "These are excellent grants – we really need them to get important community projects off the ground," he said.
Mr Katter said the town of Richmond was one example of how the grants could provide significant social benefits to small communities.
"A little tiny grant of $5,000 given to Richmond grew into a half-a-million-dollar leading interpretive Mesozoic museum in Kronosaurus Korner," he said.
"It's terrific to see places like Hughenden, with a fresh council, fresh leadership, and exciting project opportunities, get such big wins so early into their new term.
"So we congratulate all those in Council and in the communities who fought like tigers to get their community projects across the line."
ENDS
To bring in laws for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) 'Kill Switch', I voted with my crossbench colleagues, Andrew Gee MP and Dai Le. The Government shut us down. AI... It's been baffling me for a while now how people are taking me off on social media! Last week, I saw a video of me on that Dating Game television show from the 80s. Sure, it gave me a laugh... but it got me thinking... what else is AI capable of?! Where does it stop? Does it infiltrate the school yard? Our defence force? Our energy grid? Whilst it is astounding that technology is leaping forward, it is also a flashing neon light for danger. Something is seriously wrong when you aren't sure what's real or fake anymore and it is moving too quickly. So a 'Kill Switch' seems like a pretty sensible thing to me. It was disappointing that the Government chose to shut the debate down. We lost the vote 89-13. And that is no joke.
Families with the means to enjoy life rather than just survive it? More babies for Australia? Sounds like a pretty good thing to me. But apparently, Jim Chalmers isn’t convinced. I asked the Treasurer about income splitting and backing a new Australian baby boom... Policies that recognise the real value of unpaid care and reverse our vanishing race. The choice, either way, should be in women’s hands… NOT the Treasurers. Have a listen to his excuses…
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
We all know about the thriving illegal tobacco and vape industry. We all know the real causes - failures at our borders and the huge taxes on legal sales. However this issue becomes even more insidious when it is alleged that the criminals behind this trade are state sponsored terrorists organisations. Yes that’s right terrorist groups that have the backing of their country and access to the associated power and government structures. Illegal sales of tobacco aren’t simply lining the pockets of a couple of local crims…… it’s coordinated, professional and scary. Our police on the front line are vulnerable… shop owners exposed and customers preyed on. There is an urgent need to change our system, lower restrictions and cost of legal goods so the element can be quashed. In Wisdom Mongrel Patriot we discuss this and many other key issues relating to the latest laws before Parliament. To watch full episode on YouTube click here To watch full episode on Spotify click here
About 450,000 people enter into Australia each year on student and associated family ‘dependent’ visas. ALL get automatic working rights. No requirement to finish a degree, complete a course Many never leave. Our tertiary education system is being devalued with genuine students penalised by those abusing the visa system. In Wisdom Mongrel Patriot we discuss this and many other key issues relating to the latest laws before Parliament. To view full episode on YouTube click here To view full episode on Spotify click here
Today in Parliament I supported Andrew Gee MP in his urgent call to roll back rushed gun laws that are smashing local, law abiding businesses and the communities they support.
Yesterday in Parliament Bob spoke on the fact that forced labour and child exploitation occurs all too frequently overseas - in countries like the Philippines big corporations make billions, while workers are exploited and their environment is destroyed. Allowing unwanted and unneeded bananas into Australia doesn’t help these poor communities …. It actually amplifies their pain. We need to stop government ‘cherry picking’ what international agreements it follows, and what it sweeps under the table. “I consider that allowing banana imports into Australia brings an unacceptable disease to our shores….. But it also means that Australia is turning a blind eye to the misery and grief caused by large multinational corporations that exploit vulnerable countries and their citizens. “It is mind blowing that government would allow the importation of a product that we don’t need or want !!!” To watch on Facebook click here
Katter hosts public meeting to fight for fair representation
August 30 2026
The Port of Karumba serves as the primary maritime gateway for the Gulf of Carpentaria, providing key access between our southern states and the essential Asian markets and beyond. The port is a stones throw from the North West Minerals Province, vast untapped volumes of fresh water, rich soils and our northern regional agricultural sectors. The future of the port must include serious upgrades to the road network that connect it these vital resources and the rest of Australia. This submission advocates for not only broad consideration of port access and users, but also for key Inland road networks to be placed on the National Land Transport Network (NLTN) to unlock long-term, ongoing Federal funding.
