Newsroom
‘They want farming abolished’: Katter labels Govt cattle compensation refusal as ‘shameful’
January 19, 2024
FORMER cattleman and North Queensland MP Bob Katter has drawn a harrowing comparison between the Federal Government’s actions in relation to outstanding live cattle trade compensation and allowing convicted criminals to roam the country.
The Katter’s Australian Party MP has supported the cattle industry since the historic decision in 2011 when live trade of cattle to Indonesia was banned by a then Labor Government and labelled the Government’s recent decision to refuse compensation as “absolutely shameful.”
The Federal Government had a deadline of Friday, January 19 to accept the industry’s settlement offer of $500m, with its refusal likely to take the matter back to the courts.
Mr Katter said regardless of where the matter was settled, taxpayers would be footing the bill for the government’s mistakes, with further court action only increasing the burden on the public purse without actually addressing the aggrieved cattle industry.
“The courts have clearly held that the government owes these people for compensation for the inexcusable government action against them,” Mr Katter said.
“To me, it’s clear they want farming abolished in this country, and if they did care not only would they have paid these farmers their dues, but like most other countries offer subsidies and support to ensure agriculture remains viable.
“If they didn’t want farming abolished, they would not have allowed Woolworths and Coles to dominate the market and control what we pay, and what little farmers receive.
“Meanwhile, governments are quite happy to impose the most dreadful ugliness and destruction upon the Australian landscape, hundreds of miles of plastic square plates - wind farms - in place of our nature and trees and grasslands; our nature wonderlands are being turned into industrial wastelands.”
Mr Katter said it was interesting the government had the backbone to defy the courts’ orders to compensate graziers, yet recently, had shown no backbone when the courts released convicted criminals into Australian communities.