Media Release

Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has confirmed that he will once again trust in the judgment of the people to decide who they like most, and who they most dislike, when voting in this Federal Election.

Mr Katter, who has never done a deal for preferences in any of the four elections he’s independently contested for Kennedy since 2001, said he would not be changing his position in standing for the first time as founder of the KAP.

“In the last federal election, the LNP said a vote for Katter was a vote for Labor, and when it depended on our vote in 2010, our 20 points took us to the LNP. So that proved to be absolute lies.

“In last year’s Qld election, they ran the same old campaign that a vote for KAP was a vote for the ALP –but the fact is Labor would have won probably another 12 seats and the Liberals lost 1, because we were there. So once again, lies.

“I don’t know how anyone takes them seriously when they told First Australians in North Qld: ‘vote Liberal get your grog back’. Well they did, and they didn’t.

“They told Mareeba farmers there’d be no increases for irrigation, and it’s reported they’re paying $25,000 more.

“They told Queenslanders there’d be no coal seam gas drilling east of the Condamine – and there’s test drilling going down.

“They told us there’d be a reduction in taxes – well their taxes are up $5000m on the ALP’s last budget.

“They told us there’d be no public service jobs lost – well tell that the 14,000 Queenslanders who have been sacked.

“They went to three elections promising to mandate ethanol – and now that they’re in power, they’ve voted down the KAP’s motion for ethanol in Parliament.

“So how anyone would take seriously anything the LNP says is beyond my comprehension.”

Mr Katter said that preferences were decided on a seat-by-seat basis – “but I couldn’t care whether it’s the ALP or LNP or the ‘Billy from Boolmakenkie Party’ – because as long as people think it’s Labor-versus-Liberal in some sort of primitive class warfare that belongs to the last century, they’ll just get more of the same.

“We won’t be giving the ALP nor the LNP our support – we’ll be giving it to the people, just the same as we did in 2010 when we put our 20 points to both sides, and then gave our vote to the LNP because they ticked more boxes.”

“Because the ALP-LNP 'corporation' that has run this country has presided over the decimation of our manufacturing and food production industries; the influx of 1 million foreign workers since 1996 at the expense of 1.3 million Australians currently seeking a full-time job; the skyrocketing cost of living; and the overseas sell-off of one-tenth of our agricultural lands – to name but a few of their sins against our sovereignty.

“Changing the ‘duocracy’ board of directors will not change the free market ideology of our major party governments, which has proved in the worst interests of this nation and its people,” concluded Mr Katter.