Media Release

KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter will write to the Prime Minister, Treasurer and Attorney General pleading with them not to appeal the Federal Court’s ruling on the 2011 Indonesian live export ban by the then Gillard Federal Government.

“The action taken by the Gillard Government was a grossly excessive action; its outcomes were notoriously foreseeable and clearly it was an act of recurring, damaging irresponsibility,” he said.

“Quite frankly if a government makes that sort of decision then that government should be held accountable. It was an act of very damaging irresponsibility. There would be very few cases that would be set in this category.”

On July 30 the Federal Court awarded $2.93 million to the lead plaintiff, the Brett Cattle Company from Waterloo Station. The Federal Government has a 28 day window in which it can appeal.

Mr Katter said there is something terribly wrong in our education, where every MP has a tertiary education but they don't understand the most basic principle on which our society is built.

“People have rights and freedoms and if the government damages or intrudes into those rights and freedoms then people have redress from the judiciary, justice and legal system,” he said.

“This has been the law for English speaking countries and throughout the world since Magna Carta - the Great Charter. You the King, the Crown, the Executive, the Cabinet - they all mean the same thing - are subject to the law the same as every other individual.

“The Crown may have the right to run his car into my car, to destroy every industry in the country through deregulation. It may have the right to smash the taxi licence owners’ property values and incomes. The Crown has this right, but it is subject to the law and must pay compensation. That principle is overridden by the principle of vital national interest e.g. times of war. But outside of such extreme circumstance, you can act, but you must pay.

“Surely a Liberal Government, with supposed Christian values, must accept the rule of law - the Magna Carta of Archbishop Langton and William Marshall.”
-ENDS-