Media Release

KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter is adamant that Government needs to create jobs by building the railway line into the Galilee Basin. The comments follow the decision by the Federal Court to overturn the approval of the Adani Carmichael coal mine on a technical basis.

“It’s the responsibility of Government to create jobs for their people, and that comes down to the Government building the railway into the Galilee Basin,” Mr Katter said.

“It has to be built and owned by the people of Queensland. It is a pivotal railway line into key areas, not just for coal, and it will serve the people of Queensland forever.

“At the moment we have an appalling state of affairs. We have one major political party grovelling at the feet of the foreign corporations. We have the other saying that it can’t be done.

“In a State where every single inch of the existing 5,200 km of coal railway line was built by the Queensland Government, meaning it was owned by and profited the people of Queensland, now this Government can’t build 300 km of railway line?

“Well that doesn’t sit well with me.

“People think that the Galilee Basin is all about Adani, but I’ve got news for the people, it’s an area that stretches from Charters Towers and Hughenden in the north down to Bundaberg in the south.

“There is no way that new mines are going to get off the ground if a single foreign corporation has a monopoly over the railway line.

“To quote the great Andrew Forrest, when WA the Government refused to build the railway line and they built a privately owned railway line, it held the development of WA back 25 years.”

Mr Katter said that with the downturn in the coal industry and the coal seam gas industry moving out of development phase, 30,000 jobs had been lost across these two industries.

“Well where the hell are all those people going to get jobs?” Mr Katter asked.

“If you want to open up the Galilee Basin, to allow new mines and create jobs, you have to have a multi-user railway facility.

“I’ll be having discussions with Robbie Katter and Shane Knuth, because we are determined that these jobs will be created,” Mr Katter said.