At a time when so many of the their electors are in dire financial strife due to the drought and other problems we are subjected to this arrogant request from these three very well paid KAP politicians.

Let’s establish one thing.

The workload of the three KAP MPs who don’t have any specific portfolio to cover cannot be compared to that of a government minister or member or even an official opposition MP or Shadow Minister.

A Minister’s office has to initiate new legislation and deal with new issues on a daily basis.

It has to deal with hundreds of requests and issues from the general public and industry groups, prepare for ministerial council meetings with every other minister from every state, prepare for and attend cabinet meetings on a weekly basis as well as travel around the state especially to regional Queensland and the Outback to explain and defend their decisions on a daily basis to the media.

This is just a very small snapshot of the life of a government minister or minister’s office.

Contrast this to the office of a non-government MP especially those three KAP members who don’t even have official party status who spend their time thinking of the best way to whinge, whine and be critical of every action and statement from the government.

Let’s look at the resources the three KAP MPs get from the Queensland taxpayer.

Each one receives an annual salary of $183,205 plus a further electorate allowance (in Mr Katter’s case) of $74,500 plus a vehicle allowance of $42,000 plus a vehicle.

Mr Katter has three offices, one in Mount Isa, one in Charters Towers and one in parliament house in Brisbane.

Each one of those offices are staffed at taxpayers’ expense and furnished and maintained again by the taxpayer.

As well as those benefits they also receive almost unlimited travel sometimes with their partners.

So when one listens to the appeals for financial donations to assist those MPs to “get by” one can be forgiven for suggesting they dip their hands into their own pockets.

I think their request for assistance is an insult to the people doing it tough during this drought and of course  to those people trying to just simply raise their families.

David Nunnery, Mount Isa

The latest National Accounts data from the ABS has once again put Labor’s economic mismanagement on display with Queensland having the slowest economic growth of all states.

Worse still, in the last two weeks we have seen a fall in state construction, a credit rating outlook downgrade, and now confirmation that we are lagging behind all the other states.

Building approvals, construction work and business confidence are all down, while debt, taxes and unemployment continue to skyrocket.

Under Labor, Queensland building and construction continues to fall lower and lower, while greedy tax grabs just grow higher and higher.

Queensland’s economy is clearly suffering from Labor’s five new taxes and from a record debt that will cripple economic growth for years to come.  

It is clear Labor’s economic mismanagement and infrastructure crisis is killing Queensland’s economy.

Only the LNP has a plan to secure Queensland’s economic future, restore business confidence and bring Queensland up Australia’s economic ladder.

Tim Mander,

LNP Shadow Treasurer