KAP Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has written to the Prime Minister to immediately halve fuel excise to deliver emergency relief from record price pressures crippling the nation’s freight industry, and protect Australia’s primary producers. Mr Katter has warned the PM that farmers and freight operators being crushed by fuel costs across North Queensland are now reaching breaking point – with the escalating threat to their viability raising alarm that Australia’s biggest banana-growing region faces the prospect of fruit being left to rot this season, due to prohibitive fuel prices for harvest and transport. “If we fail to act quickly, the consequences will not be limited to regional Australia,” Mr Katter wrote to the PM. “When farmers in Kennedy cannot afford to harvest and transport their produce, supermarket shelves across the nation will feel the impact.” Mr Katter said that while farmers, truck drivers and families struggled under exorbitant fuel costs, the Commonwealth Government continued to collect both fuel excise and GST on every litre sold – “still taking the cream from every bowser while the people who grow and transport our food are pushed closer to the brink”. With the North Queensland electorate of Kennedy accounting for one of the nation’s largest and most productive food bowls – growing 90 per cent of Australia’s bananas for our second-most bought supermarket item, after toilet paper – Mr Katter said reports of growers now questioning whether they could afford to harvest fruit this season were “an unacceptable situation for a country as wealthy and resource-rich as Australia”. “We are being told farmers are letting fruit rot as the cost of picking it and trucking it to market no longer stacks up. That should send a chill through every government office in this country.” With immense pressure on the road freight industry that underpins agricultural supply chains, major North Queensland operators fear the unsustainable burden of out-of-control fuel costs. “Companies such as Blenner’s Transport and Curley's Transport – the lifeblood of our supply chain in North Queensland, moving produce from paddocks to plates – they are left with no choice but to pass on those increasing costs down the line,” said Mr Katter. “And the people at the very bottom of that chain are our farmers.” Mr Katter said halving the fuel excise would deliver relief not just to freight companies and farmers, but also families across the country. “This is a simple decision the Prime Minister can make right now to protect Australia’s farmers and the supply chain that feeds this nation.” ENDS