Media Release

MEMBER for Kennedy Bob Katter has been thrown out of Parliament for disorderly behaviour – for only the second time in his federal political career – following his angry objections in the House of Representatives over Qld’s much-loathed wild rivers laws.

An outraged Mr Katter asked the chairman of a wild rivers inquiry, Sydney MP Craig Thomson, whether he “took boiled lollies” to North Qld during so-called consultations with First Australians.

“It’s just typical socialist paternalism,” said Mr Katter of Mr Thomson’s comments during his tabling of the results of the House of Representatives Economics Committee’s inquiry into Indigenous economic development in Qld.

Mr Katter, accused by Mr Thomson of being out of touch, challenged him to tell the House who he’d spoken to. Mr Katter said mayors had asked him to address every one of their council meetings.

Mr Katter said the Member for Dobell in Sydney had failed to heed the collective opinion of every elected indigenous leader in North Qld on this wild rivers debacle.

Mr Katter referred Mr Thomson to two books both on university reading lists “which delineate our track record in Aboriginal affairs” - The Way We Civilise by Rosalind Kidd and Land Rights Queensland Style by Frank Brennan.

“The crux of the problem in our First Australians’ desire for self-determination through economic and social development is the absence of property rights over land they supposedly own. State and Federal governments have abrogated their responsibility to rectify this striking inequality on land ownership. Instead, paternalism has prevailed,” he said.

“Qld’s Wild Rivers Act is among the more recent assaults on First Australians' capacity for self-determination – take away their water rights, and you take as well all rights to economic development. It is another footnote in what has been a tragic history of successive governments' oppression of indigenous people.

“Governments are still saying to indigenous people: ‘We will manage your money for you; we will build your houses for you; we will control and own your water for you; we will decide what is best for you.’ The time for First Australians to be given the key to unlocking their own future is well overdue, and the Wild Rivers (Environmental Management) Bill 2010, giving the people of the Gulf and Peninsula back their rights and ownership. It is to be commended as one small step towards that.”