Newsroom

October 25, 2021

KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter says the National Party has backed net-zero by 2050 despite putting up a huge fight, ‘which means a large proportion of their party room thought it was wrong and now they’re just going to do the wrong thing.’

“They’re going to the bend the knee and go with it, destroying what little credibility they had left,” Mr Katter said.

“They went to the last election opposing this strongly and now, three years later they’re going along with it.”

Mr Katter said before cheering for net-zero, every Australian must understand the concept that to buy something from overseas you must sell something.

“The only things that we produce of significance are coal, iron-ore, copper, zinc and aluminium,” he said.

“Everything else is very small by comparison. Now, you’re going to wipe out coal - unless you’re lying of course. And by doing so, you will also ban these other metals because they must be smelted with coal. It would be ridiculously costly to smelt it any other way.

“My own thoughts are that the LNP and ALP are lying through their feet about net-zero and won’t be game enough to bankrupt the country.”

Mr Katter said closing Australia’s coal industry would pose significant problems for Australia’s relationships with the rest of Asia.

“Do we really think we can tell India that they can’t have any of our coal, and that 600 million of their poorest people have to use the ridiculously expensive solar technology?” he said.

“I hope the PM can convince the Chinese to give us the solar panels for free because we won’t have any money to pay for it. They currently produce most of the solar panels, so we will be effectively handing over what’s left of our electricity system to a foreign power.”

Mr Katter said he wasn’t opposed to some pullback in emissions.

“I am not a climate denier, I have never been a climate denier,” Mr Katter said.

“In 200 years, fossil fuels will have run out and there will be no alternative but to go into nuclear energy. Forget about everything else. We aren’t going to kill every bird with those wind turbines, and we aren’t going to cover the place in glass. When you smelt silicone dioxide to create solar panels you burn up huge amounts of fuel (coal).

“The Crossbenchers and I are proposing a Sovereign Fuel Security Bill which will massively reduce
the CO2 footprint: however, the main purpose is to give us fuel self-sufficiency.

“The legislation will prevent the export of Australia’s indigenous oil supply which will increase our refining capacity here.

“It will mandate that Government cars driven by public servants in the metropolitan areas be
electric vehicles that are made in Australia.

“The Bill will require all of Australia’s waste to be recycled into petrol and diesel using pyrolysis, as is currently being done by Southern Oils in Wagga Wagga and Gladstone.

“And there will be a renewable fuel mandate which will include ethanol produced by Australia’s sugar and grain farmers, and algae technology.”