It astounds me that they hold these ‘showcase’ events to ‘solve’ the drought, when the answers are staring at them in the face, are simple, cheap and for forever.

For 105 years in Australia, drought and similar calamities (e.g. market collapse) were dealt with by debt reconstruction. It is very simple. The Government borrows money at normally half the commercial interest rates – currently 3%.

The Government purchases the bank’s ‘bad debt’ and the mortgage ”at a discounted price” – this becomes a tax write-off

The Government Reconstruction Fund does not require repayments until the drought ceases and the market recovers.

So where a farmer might be $115,000 a year on the repayments for a $1m loan (about 5% interest), under ‘Rural Reconstruction’, they would pay $25,000 a year.

Secondly, if North Queensland were its own country, we would be the wettest country on earth. Imagine a straight line drawn on the map of Australia from Tennant Creek, through Mount Isa to Townsville. Well every river and creek above that line floods each year.

If we are able to harness some of that water and use it for micro-irrigation projects such as that proposed under the HIPCo scheme (which provides a template for 15 other irrigation projects around Northern Queensland), then we can grow grass and fatten ox all year round.

Together, these solutions will ensure that the farmer survives, the breed herd stays intact year round, the industry remains enriched and when the market or drought finishes, and the farmer goes up onto commercial rates, the Government makes money.

Bob Katter, 

Federal Member for Kennedy

I welcome the Qantas news it will introduce its discounted air fares program into western Queensland.

I have been a long-term advocate for an improved air-fare structure in the west and this announcement is a win for residents of Longreach, Blackall and Barcaldine.

Having access to Qantas’ discounted airfares program would always be a significant win for the west but it is particularly pleasing when sustained drought has crippled local economies and placed air travel out of the reach of many residents.

Residents can now access discounts of between 20 and 30 per cent off return fares to Brisbane by booking on-line at Qantas.com/residentfares.

These on-line resident fares are in addition to the one-way $176 classic resident fares under the existing program available for purchase from Longreach Airport.

Residents of western Queensland are so remote that driving is out of the question for many, but they must travel to Brisbane for genuine reasons including business, legal, educational and medical reasons.

There are also compassionate reasons such as bereavement or providing emergency assistance to family members in south-east Queensland. Often such travel may be at very short notice.

I have been making this point to Qantas, both publicly and privately, so I must say thanks for listening and understanding the challenges western Queensland travellers face. I congratulate Qantas on this very humane decision.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to get the same interest from the Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey.

He refuses to allocate any more funding even though these are state government regulated air routes. At the same time he is happy to allocate $45 million of State Transport funding to build bike paths in inner-city Brisbane. It is very disappointing.

Lachlan Millar

Member for Gregory