IF Bob Katter was Premier he would be preparing 40,000 Australians right now for the jobs mooted in the Galilee coal basin.
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Speaking from Canberra yesterday, the Member for Kennedy said: "We have some 299,000 people registered as looking for full-time work in Queensland.
"But the (state) government has the hide to tell us we don't have the people to do the work in Queensland."
Mr Katter said the lack of training initiatives was also of concern and contributed to the need to look overseas to source skilled workers in the mining industry.
"Training someone doesn't take long at all," he said.
"But there's no program in place for training.
"If we won that election and I was the Premier of Queensland, there'd be 40,000 people in training for those jobs in the Galilee Basin right now. And if they didn't want to go there and do their training, they wouldn't get their dole cheque."
Mr Katter also said he would've built mining towns so they were attractive, offering house and land packages for under $200,000.
But that hinged on the proviso land restrictions were lifted by government.
With the increased recruitment of overseas workers to work on mining projects, Mr Katter said much of the blame also had to go on the mining companies.
"I think they want to smash unionism, they pay half the pay rates to foreign workers who fly in to work for these mining companies, who are not interested in getting a better deal for their workers," he said.
"There was a time when they would fight for their workers.
"But now it seems like they don't like their workers, so they'll fly some in from overseas."