Media Release

KAP Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter today spoke up for First Australians against a tide of derogatory insults by politicians who have continually refused to provide them with the key to unlocking a real economic future – the ability to build their own homes on freehold title on land they supposedly ‘own’.

Mr Katter – the only indigenous affairs Minister ever to give First Australians the legal right to freehold title before it was stripped by Qld’s incoming socialist government – said he “reacted with great anger” to news headlines about “rivers of grog” and the continued pejorative portrayal of First Australians.

“To describe the community areas in Australia as ‘rivers of grog’ is demeaning and offensive… and I demand that the government and its spokesmen stop with that language, and stop now,” he told a media conference in Canberra.

“What has any government, State or Federal, done to address any of this other than to make ridiculous statements like ‘rivers of grog’?”

“Clearly where you have a law that says whitefellas can drink alcohol but blackfellas can’t, that is of its very nature discriminatory.”

Mr Katter pointed to a case of a respected North Qld mayor charged with a criminal offence for simply wanting to enjoy a beer while watching the football on TV at home.

“I mean is this a civilised society that puts a human being in a steel cage like an animal because he took half a dozen stubbies home to watch the football?

“Governments will put a band aid (which is what the drinking laws are) over a boil. They will not lance the boil and put the right medication to make it better. And quite frankly that is the issue of title deeds.

“It is simply not right that in the year 2013, First Australians still can’t get a piece of paper that says ‘I own something’ – a piece of land, a farm, a cattle station.

“And without that title deed, they can’t borrow money from the banks and they can’t develop an economy.

“So please, no more ‘rivers of grog’. Get out there and issue title deeds. The Federal Government can issue title deeds tomorrow. And these problems will simply vanish.”