Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has launched a scathing attack against vegan activists after they shut down Melbourne CBD’s and raided a Queensland meatworks, calling on the Federal Government to support a law enforcing jail time for interrupting business operations and trespassing on private property.
Addressing media this afternoon, Mr Katter said he would be instructing the Parliamentary draftsman today to start working up legislation which would make invasive and aggressive vegan activism illegal and punishable with jail time.
“The Minister who is supposedly responsible for this is reported to have said on public record that there is nothing that the Government can do and if this is the Government’s position, then they are all taking their pay under false pretences,” he said.
The legislation would give the Government an opportunity to do something about it by becoming the laws of the land, he went on.
“Every Australian has the right to put forward his or her point of view – and Heaven only knows I have been removed by the police in demonstrations against the coal seam gas, along with Alan Jones – but you have no right to impose your viewpoint upon other Australians and invade their privacy.
“If the Government can’t protect a person’s right to privacy, their right to food, their right to private property, then you are not a government and you are taking your wages under false pretences.”
Mr Katter’s office had been in touch with local beef producers and processors who said vegan activists were adding more threat to their already struggling livelihoods and even terrifying children on farms.
The whole issue was made worse by no support from the Queensland ALP Government, they added.
Mr Katter said vegan activism targeted two-thirds of employment in North Queensland, namely coal, beef and horticulture.
Townsville is home to Australia’s second-largest beef processing facility which employs more than 500 people, and resident and KAP Candidate for Herbert Nanette Radeck said damaging activism needed to stop.
“We need to really consider this behaviour and it needs to be stopped,” she said.
“To be vegan in this country is a choice and to eat meat in this country is a choice; (this activism) is ridiculous and disappointing.”
KAP Candidate for Dawson Brendan Bunyan said Queensland farmers were some of the cleanest and greenest in the world, and stressed the anxiety vegan activism was bringing to families, urging that their mental wellbeing be considered.
“You need to put it back on yourself; if you were sitting at home and 20 people walked in and took your computer and your dog, how would you feel?
“People need to realise and understand that when you do that to a person, they can act irresponsibly, and (when someone gets hurt), people realise what they’re doing isn’t productive for our country,” he said.
Mr Katter said private property was the bulwark of Australian freedoms.
“I could point out that logic is not their (vegans) long suit. These people do not love animals. They are the human-haters. They hate humans.
“Let them go home and cogitate about plants when they are cut in electrical impulses. So how long before they ban us from eating fruit and vegetables?”
He said the KAP would put its money where its mouth was by drafting legislation and called on the Government to take action.
“You’re not a government, you’re a bloody disgrace if you can’t stop this sort of thing from happening; this cannot be allowed to continue in this society.”
—ENDS—