Media Release

Peter Spencer v Commonwealth is as important to Australian history as Mabo, KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter said today.

Mr Katter has flown into Sydney to support the property rights activist, who was hospitalised in 2010 after a 52 day hunger strike up a wind tower on his property near Comma, New South Wales.

Mr Spencer’s case is currently before the Federal Court in Sydney, where he is suing the Commonwealth and State Governments for compensation over a decision which removed fundamental property rights affecting his land.

Former Howard Government Minister Dr David Kemp will today be giving evidence in the case.

Mr Katter said “we’ve flown in from North Queensland for what is one of the most important cases in Australian jurisprudence history.

“This case is equally as important in Australian history as Mabo.

“The Crown has given away our rights to our own property. This is a simple case where a person had millions of dollars’ worth of timber and the timber rights were taken off him, with no payment or compensation.

“In 1215 our forebears wrote out the great Magna Carta, which says that “No free man is to be taken or imprisoned or disseised of his free tenement or of his liberties or free customs”.

“That is a very clear cut statement; it has been the hallmark of the British justice system, until the last 30 years when in Australia that hallmark has been taken away by legislators.

“This case is about whether you, as an Australian own your land, or whether the Crown owns your land.”

Mr Katter said Mr Spencer’s case had been running for seven years and there were a string of cases lining up behind it, such as those involving the Government’s World Heritage declaration in North Queensland, which took millions of dollars off property values.

Mr Katter said every single case so far had been settled out of court.

Mr Katter said ultimately, “we want justice for Peter Spencer. We want a decision which says that if the Government takes property rights off a person, they have to pay compensation.

“Rest assured, if Peter Spencer loses his case, we will have set the freedoms of the people back hundreds of years,” Mr Katter said.