Media Release

Glencore’s announcement that it will force 8,000 workers to take annual leave and shut down 20 of its Australian coal mine operations in NSW and QLD for three weeks over Christmas is further confirmation of the need to ‘Austrlian-ise’, KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter said today.

“People don’t understand that Australia is under tremendous pressure and competition in the coal industry. Indonesia has soared past Australia as the world’s biggest coal exporter and we still have Mongolian coal to contend with.

“The existing Australian mines have mined out all the easy stuff, mining fields now need to be dug deeper only to source a poorer quality product. This increases the per-unit cost of production dramatically. That’s why we badly need to open up new fields.

“Any government worth feeding, and it’s been 25 years since we saw one of those, would have built the railway line into the Galilee Basin five years ago. 20,000 jobs would be created by the railway line, yet there hasn’t been a single rock or pebble moved.

Mr Katter is calling for the Australian-isation of the electricity industry to restore control and ownership to the people, which includes the Government acting on development and not simply waiting for private industry to build infrastructure. It also ensures that the assets and infrastructure are ultimately owned by the Australian people.

“In the next 10 years it will be a grim battle between the people of Australia and the sell-out brigade led by the ALP and LNP, the champions of ‘sell-off, sell-out’,” Mr Katter said.