Media Release

KAP Leader and the Federal Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter MP today spoke out in Parliament against the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014 which will erode the rights of working Australians.

Mr Katter is vehemently opposed to the introduction of section 457 visa workers who are taking plum mining jobs from Australian workers and will further drive down the minimum wages – especially potent now with the approval of the railway line and coal mine in the Galilee Basin.

“This (the Galilee Basin) is half of Australia’s known coal reserves and the workforce will be 457 workers,” Mr Katter stated today in Parliament.

“The ALP stand condemned by history. They were the people who introduced the architecture for the section 457 workers, not the Liberal party, but I bet that the Liberal party doubles those numbers over the next three years,” he said.

Mr Katter points out that the laws will undermine Australians who will be forced to accept whatever agreement is offered to them.

“The country will be submerged – our wages undermined, our pay and conditions undermined and our jobs taken. Jobs that were worth $150,000 a year will be going to foreigners, who will be working for nothing remotely resembling $150,000 a year,” Mr Katter said.

The erosion of wages will mean ordinary Australians will be forced to work for as little as $8 an hour and will struggle to afford the rising costs of living.

“I would like to know how he would pay just the rent on a house, let alone food or any other costs of living we have to confront, including the $7 now for going to a doctor or as a payment to a pharmacist,” he said.

Mr Katter has urged the government to look to Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest for answers - a man who has done amazing work in Australia getting over 2,000 First Australians into the workforce.

“Not all of them are trained to go onto his jobs, but of that 2000, over 500 are still working with Fortescue Metals.

“The bloke that was handling the Aboriginal jobs there said to me –: ‘Creating jobs for First Australians is not what we do, it’s who we are,’” Mr Katter said.

“The Liberal party just does not seem to learn anything. It was said of the Bourbon kings: ‘They have forgotten nothing and they have learnt nothing.

“We can play football without a referee, but it will not be much of a game. We can play the industrial game without a referee too, and I can tell you: you will have mayhem at the end of the day and people working for nothing."

Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014 is a sure fire way to let companies pay a minimum wage and exploit the workers of our proud nation.

“As an Australian, one of the proudest boast I have is that we pay decent wages in this country,” Mr Katter said.