So the State Member for Mount Isa Rob Katter is again repeating his rendition of the same old song "Lets Have A New State For North Queensland".
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His reason being "the big parties wont let us have the boundary changes that the two Katter Party members of the Queensland Parliament want."
Mr Katter must be ignorant of the simple things, namely that the state electoral boundaries are re-drawn every seven and a half years by an independent tribunal who are charged with the task of redrawing the boundaries based on population growth and population movements around the state.
This is not done by a group of politicians, nor should it be, for their only interest would be in preserving their own particular seat or to ensure that their political party can secure or retain power. Is that Democracy?
I remember the days when our present federal member Bob Katter was a minister in the old LNP state government where as a direct result of the system which the old Country and Liberal Party had in place they ran Queensland with 19% of the popular vote. Is this what the Katter Party are advocating again?
Mr Katter says because the Katter Party cant get their own way with the boundary changes then they will be pressing for a new state of North Queensland. I thought we had been down that route before.
Mr Katter, can you explain how this scheme will work?
Where will the capital of the new state be? How much will the new Parliament House cost? How many new members of the new parliament and their staff will we have and at what cost? Where will the new Government House be and what will Government House and the trimmings of a new governor cost? How many new public servants will we require and at what cost? How many new headquarters of the various government departments will we require and at what cost? Lets talk about the thousands of new vehicles required, new hospitals, new prisons, new police stations, the building of new roads and their maintenance. Who will pay for the Aboriginal communities and the services they require?
The more I look into this stupid proposal the sillier it sounds. Come on Mr Katter lets forget about you protecting your own job, go out and talk with real people, find out their priorities and I don’t think a new state would be high on their agenda. Maybe a new state member would be.
