Media Release

On the day of the 2016-17 Federal Budget, and a year after the $5 Billion in concessional loans for Northern Australia was announced in the 2015-16 Budget, not a cent has been spent. KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter told the LNP Government today to stand on its record of what it HAS done for Northern Australia over the past 3 years, not what it’s ‘Gunna Do’.

“Both the ALP and the LNP have no understanding that we do not want to hear what they are 'going to do'.

Mr Katter said to this LNP Government “You've been there for three years, and you've been there for 14 of the last 20 years; why haven't you done it?

“You've had all this time and now you tell us you're going to do it next time. Well, 'going to do it' is not good enough.” Mr Katter said.

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Bill 2016, (the legislation for the $5 billion Northern Australian
Concessional Loans), was only introduced into the Parliament last month. Today it was sent to the senate a second time – raising doubts if it will be passed before a double dissolution election and a year after being announced.

Mr Katter who was a Senior Minister for the best part of a decade in the long-standing Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen Queensland Government stated that cabinet would never have contemplated going into an election stating ‘this is what we are gunna do’.

“When I was in a government that won every single election for, I think, 35 years, we did not go to an election saying what we were going to do, because that is an advertisement against you. The immediate question, then, that leaps to people's minds—is: 'Why haven't you done it?

Mr Katter also expressed apprehension at where the $5 billion concessional loan monies for Northern Australia would be spent; and questioned whether the funds would go to Australians or to Foreign owned corporations:

“As a person at a distance, I say the Ord River stages 2 and 3 will easily be the biggest farming operation in Australia, and it will be foreign owned. The biggest farming operation in Australia at the moment is Tasman Farms; it is foreign owned. The third biggest operation in Australia is Cubbie Station; it is foreign owned. What the hell do we own?

“If you want to know where the money is, $23 billion of superannuation money is shipped overseas and put into the roulette wheel of the American stock market. That is a wonderful use of our money! If people knew where their superannuation was going, they would lie awake at night in a cold sweat,” Mr Katter said.

Mr Katter then focused on successive ALP and LNP government’s lack of spending on development infrastructure and the projects which will generate returns and jobs in Northern Australia.

“For the last 25 years, I have not known of a developmental project financed by the government anywhere in Australia.

“When the Liberals announced an infrastructure package to boost the Australian economy, it was roads and rail in the city.

“What do you get for a $5,000 million tunnel in Brisbane? A few thousand people get home a few minutes early to watch the television!

“If that $5,000 million were used to build a railway line into the Galilee, I would give you $4,000 million a year in revenue for the Australian people. I would give you 20,000 jobs, for the next hundred years.

“If it were used on the Hells Gate Dam and the Upper Herbert River proposals, the two water projects have an income of $4,000 million a year,” Mr Katter said