There is less then a week until voting closes for the 2022 Federal Election and we are talking to Kennedy candidates about the issues of North West Queensland.
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The North West Star has sent eight questions to all candidates asking for their specific plans or policies to North West issues and their responses are to compare below.
Bob Katter tell me a little bit about yourself:
I was born and raised in Cloncurry. Before politics, I worked in Mount Isa lead smelter, I was a mining man and I worked my own copper leases, sold insurance contracts and ran cattle on a station I owned in the Gulf.
I was Minister for Mines and Energy, Development and Community Services, Northern Development, and First Australian Affairs in the Qld Bjelke-Petersen Govt. We built a dam, a rail line and opened a new mine, every year.
I was elected by the people of Kennedy in 1993. I left the National Party in 2001 after they deregulated and destroyed all our rural industries, taking protection away from farmers, including maize, eggs, peanuts, dairy, sugar, and tobacco.
Why should people invest in the North West?
93% of Australia's surface area is populated by less than 1 million people. We must populate inland Australia.
An old truism of history is that a people without land will look for a land without people.
Prime Minister 'Black Jack' McEwen said again and again that, "unless we develop this great treasure which is Australia, I fear that we will not be able to hold on to it."
What are your specific projects to develop Northern Australia?
The KAP strongly backs the CopperString transmission line to open new mines in the North West Minerals Province, and it will send back renewable energy to the national electricity grid.
Owner-operator, ballot irrigation farm schemes like the Hughenden Irrigation Scheme (HIPCo) which can be replicated in the other mid-west towns (Julia Creek, Richmond, Cloncurry) and in the Gulf (Normanton, Doomadgee, Burketown, Georgetown etc). The major parties have previously given the water licences to foreign owned or absentee landlord corporations. The water must go to the locals.
Hells Gates dam built to 395m above sea level to facilitate the Revised Bradfield Scheme which will send water west onto the rich black soil plains. The LNP's proposal is a small dam and irrigation on basalt rock country.
What commitment can you make to curb the crime wave in Mount Isa?
The KAP's relocation sentencing policy gives Magistrates the option to send youth offenders to an outback relocation sentencing facility in Kajabbi where the teens will be given valuable education and training in skills such as brick laying, fencing, livestock management, house building, cooking and much more.
Under the current ALP regime, teenagers are either locked away in detention centres at extreme costs to the taxpayer or they're let back on the street and continue offending.
The situation with the people living in the Leichhardt River, Mount Isa's water supply, must be addressed. Robbie Katter has said there must be tighter scrutiny on housing inventory and occupancy habits on both sides of the NT/Qld border to ensure people aren't living in a house in one area and holding another in their name. Another option is a diversionary centre (similar to KASH) and housing at least 15 kilometres out of town for the people to move into, and that a weekly bus service be established.
OTHER CANDIDATES:
What incentives will you provide to curb housing shortage?
I have been in discussions with major mining operators in the North West Minerals Province (Cloncurry and Mount Isa) for the provision of housing.
If 400 one-hectare blocks were released in Cloncurry, not only would it provide a stable workforce, but it would also give us a much more liveable community.
The provision of 1,000 similar blocks in Mount Isa would not be unreasonable. Housing can be provided for through a $150 per/week salary sacrifice, and $150 from the mining companies.
Since the introduction of FIFO mining, Mount Isa has gone from 30,000 people down to 18,000 people.
There are renewable businesses waiting on the development of CopperString 2.0, what's your timeline for CopperString and what steps will you take to encourage growth of renewable in the area?
In a position of power after the election, we will be demanding deadlines for the construction of CopperString. If the Government doesn't meet those deadlines, then they will not have our support.
Glencore said publicly two years before the last state election that it was going to close its copper smelter and refinery. Working with senior ALP figures we were able to stave this off. I again state my public thanks.
The copper price is high now, but the world price for metals is volatile. We are hopelessly non-competitive in the North West Minerals Province. We are paying $150 a MWh, mining companies are having to use diesel generators. We must build CopperString and connect to the national grid which will bring competitively priced power. We will send back renewable power. The windfarms at Hughenden are some of the best sites for wind in the world.
What are your specific projects to support the agriculture industry?
The ALP and LNP hand out water licences on the Flinders River to the highest bidder - foreign owned or absentee landlords. This does nothing to increase our towns' populations.
The KAP model is to ballot out the water in a lottery system to owner-operator farmers who will comprise local Council workers, residents, small business owners and the children of cow cockies. The Hughenden Irrigation Project (HIPCo) will create 150 to 200 owner-operator farms and will grow the size of the town dramatically. This model can be repeated in all the Mid-West towns (Cloncurry, Richmond, Julia Creek etc), as well as the Gulf towns (Doomadgee, Burketown, Normanton, Georgetown etc).
There are daycare shortages/long wait times across the North West, what measures will you take to alleviate it?
Childcare workers are underpaid. There is no doubt about that. The wages of childcare workers must be increased, but this alone will not solve all the problems of staff shortages and waiting lists.
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