Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has met with new Prime Minister Scott Morrison to discuss a range of issues that are not only important to North Queensland (Nth Qld) but also Australia. 

Mr Katter told the media today, “I think that a Government, installed by the Governor-General is entitled to stability, but if the starvation of our First Australians continues, if the drought which is imposed by Government because they won’t build water schemes continues and if the bank inquiry is not a proper bank inquiry then I would have to think, you know, why don’t I just disrupt and cause mayhem until we get some decent Government in this country so I’d be thinking about mayhem. 

“It (the meeting) wasn’t a quid pro quo and that would be improper for me to portray it that way, it would be improper also for me to do that and it would be unfair.” 

If the Government loses Malcolm Turnbull’s old seat of Wentworth at the upcoming by-election then it loses its one-seat majority in Parliament. 

Mr Katter said, “We’ve got a compressed timeframe and there are three threads that this Government is hanging by – two of those threads sat in the strangers section of the Parliament , two or three times, so they’ve clearly indicated that they’re not going to give the Government a run. So I’m the only one giving the Government a run so if that thread is cut? 

“My area is the one that is suffering. I have the First Australians, I identify as one, my area is suffering from drought, my area is suffering from financial oppression. I represent the people that are copping it.” 

Mr Katter is a proud leader of a party that’s about ‘hard hats and hard hands’ and he fronted the media today with a shovel because he wants the Government to stop wasting time on “stupidity and petty irrelevancy” and build infrastructure and water schemes, a great weapon against the drought. 

Mr Katter told the Prime Minister that he has three ‘shovel ready’ water projects in Nth Qld – Hughenden (HIPCO), North Jonhstone Transfer and Charters Towers (Big Rocks) weir. Mr Katter is urging the Government to actually deliver on dams and not make broken promises. 

“I’ve said Prime Minister, one of your Ministers is racing around announcing dams and he’s making a fool of himself because at the last election your party promised us dams, the election before that you promised us dams. 

“There are three shovel ready projects. Hughenden is right in the heart land of the worst drought area in this country and Hughenden is ready to go. So unless you’re out there Prime Minister on a dozer, with a hard hat on pushing that dirt up with a shovel then it’s all a big mess of dog’s droppings.“ 

In response to a question about whether Mr Katter would support a referral of Peter Dutton to the High Court? Mr Katter said, “definitely, not”. 

Mr Katter doesn’t want Parliament to continue to waste time on petty party games. He said “So we spent all our time on pettiness, we have spent no time on substance. One of the biggest industries in this country - agriculture is on its knees and t will take 15 years to recover unless someone gets a shovel out and does something. Now that’s the issue we should be talking about. I mean people can’t afford to turn the lights on, they can’t afford to buy food. 

“I think they’re entitled to govern and govern with stability. We have reached a point, my First Australian cousin brothers. We are starving to death and dying of malnutrition in numbers that are not only a disgrace to this country now but will be a disgrace for forever. Give me a Title Deed so I can borrow so money so I can buy some moo cows to make a quid to look after myself. 

“I am the longest serving member of Parliament bar one, in Australian history and you can look at my history and say ‘righto’ well this bloke’s given each of these people a fair go and when he didn’t get a fair go then it was mayhem time." 

Mr Katter raised his common ground with the new Prime Minister, in that his Great Aunt Dame Mary Gilmore is buried in Mr Katter’s hometown of Cloncurry and they discussed her poetry. But he expressed his strong disdain at the Government and Labor’s support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP). 

“Scott knew the poem off by heart – No foe shall gather our harvest or sit on our stockyard rail. He knew the poem the same as I did. Well he just passed the TPP? That is the foe sitting on your stockyard rail. He’s not responsible for that, that was in motion well before him and he couldn’t stop that even if he wanted to. But the thing is Scott - that is someone else gathering your harvest, I mean half of Australia’s agriculture is owned by foreigners. If that’s not someone else gathering your harvest, I don’t know what is?" 

Mr Katter is a staunch critic of free trade and has long been vehemently opposed to the TPP, he delivered a passionate speech to Parliament. 

“Australia has made its last refrigerator. Australia has made its last motor car. Hundreds of thousands of Australians have lost their jobs. You must understand that if you want to buy your biros, your glasses, the leather in your shoes and the cloth in your suit from overseas then you've got to sell something, and this country's got nothing to sell now. You've destroyed it. There are only two things that we sell now: iron ore and coal. And thanks to the education system and the brainlessness of this place, 60 per cent of Australia wants the coal industry closed down.”

—ENDS—