Media Release

KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter nearly choked on his condensed-milk and arrowroot biscuits when he read the Federal Budget and saw that the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) would receive $40m to administer the fund over the next four years, when it has only released $160m in the last five years.

“How can it cost that much money for a bunch of bureaucrats who couldn’t even giveaway a prize-bull to a bushie in Boulia?” Mr Katter said.

“The NAIF is the embodiment of everything that is wrong in modern government in Australia; suits sitting in an office patting each other on the back when they can barely even push a penny out the door.

“All this, while we have shovel-ready, industry-enabling, make-money projects ready to go, for example, the North Johnstone Transfer, Copperstring 2.0, an alternate road from Mareeba-to-Cairns, the Hughenden Dam (HIPCo), I could go on.”

The Northern Australia Minister recently announced changes to the NAIF to make it more flexible and widen the scope, but Mr Katter said the only real change that seemed to be coming through was more public servants and extravagance at NAIF HQ.

“The National Party have done this country a huge disservice,” he said.

“They have sat on $5 billion for six years and there has not been a single significant project undertaken in the north.

“We had shovel ready projects, silver platter and all, hand delivered and ready to reverse their notorious reputation for being inept, and still got nothing.”
-ENDS-