Media Release

12 July 2017: Far North Qld lime growers will continue to battle against “Free Market policies that have ripped the insides” out of so many agricultural industries on the Tablelands, said KAP Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter today after a meeting in Mareeba over the proposed importation of even more foreign produce.

“Clearly there was unanimity today by a big crowd and a sophisticated knowledge of how we are going to fight this in the streets and in the media,” said Mr Katter of a community that boasts a history of national leadership in fighting for the survival of rural Australia.

“Peanuts, tobacco, grapes, milk… Free Market policies have ripped the insides out of all these industries on the Tableland. You’d have to go back to colonial days to find the same kind of snivelling and grovelling to big foreign corporations that provides the precedent for the current attitudes prevailing in Canberra.

“Go back to Prime Ministers Hughes and Fisher, with their famous ‘British to the bootstraps’ mentality – and how many Australians had family members die at Gallipoli, like my Great-Grandfather’s brother, to make big British corporations rich? It’s the same treacherous attitudes infecting every single Member of Parliament today (except for probably the Member for Dawson).

“But it’s not just about Free Market grovelling to big foreign corporations that bankroll the big political parties – these people are fundamentalists whose belief system is so arrogant that they don’t live in the real world, like the rest of us, where every farm and every job is so important. And it’s the industry peak bodies who are the sell-out merchants – they sold us out lock stock and barrel in dairy.

“And yes, it’s true we’ve lost battles – so poison peanuts and poison potatoes and contaminated grapes now come into Australia. I could go on – the latest, of course, being white spot diseased prawns.

“But let’s not forget our spectacular victories – we had massive demonstrations and fought on five fronts to stop imported bananas; Charters Towers cattleman stuck like glue to stop the resumption of their land for Defence; the Federal farm assistance welfare grants secured by the Rural Action Council in Mareeba for the survival today of over 11,000 Australian families.

“And remember, it’s thanks to the people of this area that we now have a near-balance of power situation with Parliamentary representation in Shane Knuth and myself. And the battle will go on.”