Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter is appalled Member for Cook Cynthia Lui is moving her office one hour from her electorate, ‘because she wants to be in Cairns’ – expecting her constituents to go one hour out of their way to visit her.

In a media release Ms Lui confirmed she will shift the office to Cairns – saying while she realises it’s not in the Cook Electorate, she believes it’s more central in reaching her constituents. In media reports, Mareeba Mayor Tom Gilmore has supported her decision.

Mr Katter has suggested she should run for a seat in Cairns and let Cook be represented by someone who will fight to keep services in the electorate, not take them away.

“She just wants to live in Cairns, I strongly suggest she runs for a Cairns seat next time, because there’d be no point in her running for the seat of Cook. The people cannot, will not and should not accept that an office be placed over an hour drive from the electorate, it would also be wonderful if Mayor Gilmore became Mayor of Cairns,” Mr Katter said.

“What conceivable use is an electorate in Cairns to the people of Mareeba district of more than 20 thousand people? I’m sure people in Port Douglas are not going to do a two hour drive to go to the office in Cairns.

“If you are not in your electorate – you are not under pressure and fully aware of the issues. She’s already voted against the people of North Queensland. She might be a nice lady, but she’s just there to hold her hand up when Brisbane Labor tells her to – nothing more than a puppet on a string.

“The bulk of the First Australian communities are in the Cook electorate – yet it is myself that has had to do the squealing about 150 people dying as a result of successive ALP governments closing down the old Mission Market Gardens. On crocodiles she seems quite happy that her children will never swim in our waterways and oceans, like all we North Queenslanders and Cape Islanders have done for the last hundreds and thousands of years,” Mr Katter said.

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