The KAP are clearly now the only party in Queensland prepared to push back against big gas companies and stick up for the rights of farmers and indeed all landholders in Queensland, the KAP leader, Robbie Katter has said, after the Queensland government rammed through controversial laws enabling land to be resumed and handed to private developers.
The KAP opposed legislation that passed Queensland parliament with the LNP using their numbers to eliminate rights of appeal and allow entry to private property before an agreement is reached, all without any protections for prime agricultural land.
“Less than three hours debate, no answers on why the bill is needed, and a vote in the dead of night. Call me sceptical, but I smell a rat!” The leader of the KAP said.
“When the only time ‘critical minerals’ appears in the 227 pages of the bill is in the title, and the government refuse to say why they need these extraordinary powers, it’s pretty obvious they’re up to something a bit shifty, and that the bill is about anything else but critical minerals,” the KAP leader said.
“Any landholder, from western Queensland to Brisbane should be worried,” Mr. Katter said.
“You’d expect Labor to force gas onto landholders like they did from 2015, but to see the LNP throw open the gates to developers is something else.
“If your land happens to be where the Minister decides a ‘State Strategic Project’ needs to go, you have no right of appeal, no good faith negotiation, and your land can then be sold or given to a private developer!
“This is blowing a massive hole in any far-flung hope of coexistence between developers and communities.
“In my patch, in the North West, mining and landholders are usually pretty good with each other, with very few land access issues. But this bill has lit up the community.
“Instead of making life easier for developers, this bill has put everyone on tenterhooks. The next development will be met with much more scepticism and concern.
“If the Minister just came out and said ‘we need the power to get gravel to build the Olympics’ or any other transparent reason, I probably wouldn’t have such a big problem.
“I’m pro-development, regardless of what the sycophant backbenchers will try and say, but I’m not into writing blank cheques, like this bill is,” the KAP Leader said.