Media Release

KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter has been forced to travel to Canberra for the upcoming sitting of federal parliament with the cries of North Queensland’s doctors, businesses and leaders falling on Brisbane’s deaf ears.

“For two months these North Queenslanders pleaded for a ban on people coming from a high contagion area into a no-contagion area,” he said.

“We are getting nowhere abusing the women who dictate to Queensland and their public health Tsar, Jeannette Young who presides over the Queensland Health Department that sent coronavirus into the Cairns Base Hospital – Northern Australia’s great fortress of protection.

“Quite independently of my own efforts nearly 150 doctors, that’s almost every single doctor in North Queensland not employed by the health department, have signed the document urging the quarantining off of regional areas such as North Queensland.

“So Janette Young and the two Tsars who run Queensland know more than the accumulated wisdom of over 100 doctors?”

Mr. Katter said he would spend next week banging on the doors of as many ministers as possible, as well as gaining national publicity for the cause.

“The people that make decisions for Australia out of Canberra live in a bubble and really without slashing into that bubble we will remain under the boot heel of Brisbane,” he said.

Aside from isolation, Mr. Katter will also raise the issue of First Australians and their treatment under the Coronavirus restrictions.

“The situation for the First Australians in the community areas is such that they are back under the evil Act of the first half of the last century, where they couldn’t leave or come onto the reserve without the permission of the white fella Superintendent,” he said.

“There has been rioting in Aurukun, demonstrations in Yarrabah, screams from Palm Island and confrontations with the police in Doomadgee.

“Across Australia there are more deaths coming from the lockdown than the Coronavirus. That may be OK in other parts of Australia, but it is not justified in North Queensland.”

Mr. Katter said the plea for isolation wasn’t simply based on medical reasons but also economic ones.

“The sooner we can stop the contamination coming in from the high contagion areas (Sydney, Brisbane Melbourne), then the sooner the giant shovel ready projects can start,” he said.

“Those projects include the creation of the national electricity grid into the Mt Isa minerals province (the dream child of Rudd, Swan and Abbott) through the Copperstring transmission line, Hells Gates Dam and the immediate start of a railine into the Galilee Basin which instantly creates 20,000 jobs and doubles Australia’s coal production.

“The water from Hells Gates Dam provides 7% of Australia’s petrol, 1.5% of Australia’s electricity and 15% of beef production through zero emission algae agro technology developed in Israel.

“To do these projects we must remain coronavirus free, as workers will be building alongside each other.”

Mr. Katter said the fact the ACT only had 4 active cases of coronavirus influenced his decision and he will show extreme caution upon his return to North Queensland.

-ENDS-