Newsroom

March 28, 2022

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BOB Katter, Member for Kennedy, says the Federal Government has failed our Pacific Islander neighbours after it was revealed the Government ignored concerns being raised over Chinese unrelenting interference in the region.

The Australian Newspaper^[1] today reported that an Opposition Leader for the Solomon Islands raised with the Australian High Commissioner a red flag over a security agreement being negotiated with China, citing concerns of a permanently based Chinese military presence in their region.

The call for intervention fell on deaf ears.

Mr Katter said that the region surrounding Australia had over 600 million people and should have been prioritised by the Australian Government as VIP’s, and that Australia’s vacant inland is prime for feeding and powering the entire South Pacific region.

“There are hundreds of millions of people living in the VIP countries; Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as the surrounding Pacific Islands.

“Our Government won’t listen to their national security pleas. We should be looking after our VIPs and Pacific Island neighbours. Not ignoring them.

“Probably worst of all, the Federal Government has neglected populating inland Australia. Not one single effort has been made in the last 50 years to put a single person into that 93 percent of the Australian land mass where the population is ebbing away like a low tide. Only 1.2 million people live there. In that 93 percent is all of the nation’s exports; coal, iron ore, aluminium, gas, copper lead zinc, gold, grain and cattle.”

Mr Katter said this was just the most recent example of the Federal LNP Government’s towering ignorance over Australia’s national security.

“Successive governments, over the last 20 years, have done absolutely nothing about real defence for this country, or the region we sit in,” Mr Katter said.

“They are allowing China to circle our Pacific region like a pack of wild dingoes, and now we have the Solomon/China security agreement. It is so obvious to see what is going on.

“This is a trajectory of invasion, and I don’t hesitate to use that word. Look at the Solomons, look at Daru, Yam Island, or the tip of Cape York (which has been up for negotiation with the Chinese).

“Look at the Port of Darwin, the Ord stage 2, and the Merredin Airbase outside of Perth; the terminus between the east/west rail line and the terminus between the east/west highway. 

“Look at the disastrous AdBlue saga late last year, where if KAP Candidate for Herbert, Clynton Hawks, hadn’t blown the whistle, every single truck would have been off the road all because some imbecile in Canberra said you had to put liquid urea in every litre of diesel. But the place you can get that urea from is China.

“Infinitely worse still, they have let China buy around 40 percent of Australia’s electricity industry. Just given it to them.

“I cannot as a Member of Parliament tell you where our submarines are, but Global Switch who is owned by China and holds Australia’s defence force data, can tell you where the submarines are. The Chinese are just laughing themselves silly at our pitiful attempts at cyber security and firewalls.

“If you can’t see them coming, then history has an imperative lesson and you will pay for your stupidity. You will pay a terrible price.

“Almost all of our petrol, diesel and av gas comes from Singapore and South Korea. If China embargoes our fuel those countries are not going to defy China. Our supply will be snuffed out by China in three seconds.

“If China invades there won’t even be a battle because the Lily Pad lefties have taken every firearm off us. These lightweight imbeciles know more than Thomas Jefferson did when he wrote the Bill of Rights and the second amendment.

“China just cannot believe their luck,” Mr Katter said.

[1] https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/solomons-mps-warned-australian-officials-of-china-security-pact-talks/news-story/5a5d997a93cd26d47d2db679841bb6dc