Media Release

17 January 2017: KAP Federal Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter says “it’s not news anymore,” following the three meter Crocodile sighting near the North Mission Beach swimming enclosure yesterday.

The sighting shut down the beach. This is following the recent removal of a crocodile from a playground in Bramston Beach and in a separate incident, the removal of a crocodile from inside the swimming enclosure at Forrest Beach near Ingham.

Mr Katter said, “This proves how silly the comments are from one of the Northern Politicians who said we shouldn’t be walking near crocodile territory at night… well the whole of coastal Nth Qld is croc territory. Where you got water – you got crocs.

“Probably the most beautiful place on earth is Mission Beach and we’re having it declared off-limits by idiots that are running around saying we shouldn’t be near crocodile habitat.

“It would be hard to find a single point on the Paradise Coast where you wouldn’t be more than ½ kilometres from croc habitat.

“It is time now to look at the hunting safaris licensing a couple of hundred crocs a year.

People will pay $1000 a croc and $2000 to taxidermist over and above the costs.

“If we licence 200 a year, you have a $2m-a-year business. And with the taxidermy and / or tanning the skins, there would probably be an extra $2m on top of that.

“And we want a roundup of about 700 or 800 crocs a year to be put into the Edward River Crocodile farm.”

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