Media Release

Federal KAP Leader and Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has called on the Australian Government to revisit the issue of title deeds in First Australian areas following the release of the Close the Gap Progress Report.

“Effectively the report shows that the gap is widening and the answers are as obvious as a snowman in a Bedourie Dust Storm.

“25 per cent of Australia’s entire land surface is supposedly owned by First Australians.

"Half of that is in the high rainfall belt, above 40 inch, more rain than Brisbane or Sydney enjoy.

“Then how is it these people have the highest unemployment rates, highest suicide rates, highest jailing rates, highest diabetes rates and arguably the highest mortality rates of any racial grouping on earth?

“As a nation we should be utterly ashamed of our Governments, their performance in this area is nothing less than despicable.

“The pathway out has always been the “title deed”. Real ownership of the land allowing First Australians to borrow money for development.

“There is no other way that job creation and development can occur. It is the same as every other business venture in Australian history, they have to borrow from a bank, the bank wants the security of a title deed / mortgage ability.

“We have only been able to identify the issuing of two title deeds in 25 years in Queensland, where the vast bulk of First Australians live.

“It’s not real hard to issue a title deed. As Minister I issued around 750 title deeds in three and a half years.

“Very soon the rest of the world is going to cotton onto the fact that diabetes is endemic in the Torres Straits. Diabetes is malnutrition and it can be sheeted home to the Governments that have all but banned farming and fishing.

“They’ve said, ‘we must protect the mainland from disease, we must protect the Barrier Reef’. So First Australians have to die to protect the mainland from disease?

“The Barrier Reef has been doing fine under First Australians for 40,000 years. In that same 40 millennia, none of these diseases have got into Australia.

"It might be news to the Governments that the mainland and the Barrier Reef were doing fine until you white fellas came along,” Mr Katter said.