We hope that you’ve had some rain wherever you are this week. It’s great news for everyone to see the skies finally opening up and brining some much-needed relief to our farmers.

Our head office team in Townsville has been enjoying watching the rain fall this week as they continue the search for candidates for the next Federal election.

Quality candidates are critical to our ability to stand up and fight for things that matter to you.

We are always interested to hear from people are interested in becoming candidates. Or perhaps you know of someone who would make a great candidate.

If that’s the case, please get in touch with our head office team. Give them a call on 07 4401 5037. They’d be pleased to hear from you.

Shane Paulger

KAP President

Our four members of Parliament are always busy – we want to keep you up to date with what they are up to over the next week.

Bob Katter Federal Member for Kennedy

·       Bob is in Innisfail today, catching up with some local organisations and businesses, including Innisfail Basketball Corporation and Goondi Hill Pub to discuss issues in the area;

·       Bob will be in Canberra next week, where Federal Parliament is sitting from Monday to Thursday.

·       Friday next week you’ll be able to catch up with Bob in Ingham.

Robbie Katter State Member for Traeger

·       Robbie will be in Clonclurry on Tuesday. Sadly Robbie’s Clonclurry Electorate Office closed yesterday due to the boundary changes and a lock of resources provided by the government. We bid farewell to Sarah Harvey who has provided a number of years of highly valued service to Robbie and his team. Robbie will be sure to continue to stay in regular contact with the Clonclurry community and continue to represent them. Please don’t hesitate to call his office on 07 4730 1100;

·       On Wednesday, Robbie will be spending the day in Hughenden.

·       Our state MPs are working hard to redraft the KAP bills that were not debated last parliament because of the early election. This means they can be reintroduced.

·       Robbie is continuing to pursue his pilot’s licence and expects to be in the air by the end of March. With an electorate of more than 400,000 square kilometres, this will make a huge difference to Robbie being able to get around.

Shane Knuth State Member for Hill

·       Monday Shane will be in the Tablelands for the Atherton State School Leaders Induction;

·       Tuesday night you can catch Shane in Babinda for the Lions Meet and greet;

·       On Wednesday morning Shane will be in the Tablelands for a meeting with landowners, Biosecurity QLD and the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy on the Navua Sedge management strategy;

·       Wednesday night he’ll be back in Tully to meet with the Tully Chamber of Commerce;

·       Thursday and Friday Shane will spend his time in Innisfail

Nick Dametto State Member for Hinchinbrook

·       You can catch Nick on Sunday from midday at the Taylors Beach Progress Association’s Fishing Competition where he will be congratulating anglers;

·       On Tuesday, he will take time to listen to farmers’ concerns at the Herbert River District Cane Growers’ directors meeting;

·       Nick will be at the official opening of Ingham’s Optimise Health & Wellness centre next Wednesday from 5pm;

·       Next Thursday, Nick will meet with Mungalla Aboriginal Business Corporation’s managing director for a tour of Mungalla Station.

Member for Hill Shane Knuth has said he is ‘disappointed but not shocked’ that the construction of Nullinga Dam is under threat before it even begins.

‘For the past 30 years, Nullinga has been dragged out before every election as a vote grabber and then placed on the backburner shortly after’ Mr. Knuth said.

‘The major parties have taken every advantage possible of our desperate need for greater water infrastructure capacity but they never follow through’ Mr. Knuth said

‘It’s been 31 years since the last major water infrastructure project, at this rate it will be a hundred years before the next.’

Mr. Knuth said ‘with all this procrastination, I will work with the Federal Member for Kennedy and stakeholders to progress the North Johnstone Transfer Scheme to increase flow into Tinaroo Dam’. 

Both State and Federal Parliament have started for the year, and our Members of Parliament are raring to go.

Our Federal Leader, Bob Katter, has had a busy two weeks in Canberra.

He has written to the Minister for Health to add life-saving breast cancer drugs Ribociclib and Palbocicilib to the Pharamceuticals Beneftis Scheme, which you can read about in this issue of Real News.

He also used his time in Canberra to deliver a scathing attack on the Trans Pacific Partnership and so called ‘free trade,’ which he says is killing off Australia. You can read more about it in this week’s Real News.

This week was the first week of Parliament for our three Queensland State Members of Parliament, Robbie Katter, Shane Knuth and Nick Dametto.

They have the next two weeks in their electorates, then are back in Parliament on 6 March.

If there are any issues you would like our MPs to address, I would encourage you to get in contact with their offices. You can find their contact details in the ‘Contact’ section of KAP’s webpage.

Shane Paulger

KAP President

KAP State Leader and member for Traeger Robbie Katter has pledged to make the first donation to the Go Fund Me page of the Rockhampton man fined $10,000 for shooting a crocodile.

Today in Rockhampton Court, Luke Orchard was handed a $10,000 fine but had no conviction recorded over the shooting of a monster crocodile near Rockhampton last year.

Mr Katter spoke to Mr Orchard’s father Phil, this afternoon reaffirming the KAP’s commitment to put people before crocs in Queensland while also pledging to support the Go Fund Me page.

“We remain committed to creating safer waterways for Queenslanders,’’ Mr Katter said.

“People have been crying out for help to deal with the expanding crocodile problem. Unfortunately, as a result people are forced to take desperate measures to ensure the safety of themselves and their family and to protect their livelihood.

“This is what happens when the Government doesn’t act.’’

Phil Orchard said his son had been shaken up by the incident and was very remorseful.

“I agree with the Katter’s Australian Party in that some sort of crocodile control should be introduced, not necessarily culling, but something to manage the numbers,’’ Phil Orchard said.

“My son and I go out every day and count the calves, we know we are losing lots of calves to the crocs every year. We see the cows pacing along the river bank bellowing and looking for their calves which have been taken.’’

KAP Member for Hill Shane Knuth, who introduced the Safer Waterways Bill into the previous Queensland Parliament, said he would reintroduce the Bill during the current Parliament.

“It’s disappointing that people feel that the government is doing nothing and frustrating them to a point they are taking matters into their own hands,’’ Mr Knuth said.

“This is state-wide issue and as such should be dealt with by the Queensland Labor Government. We don’t need another study, people want our waterways safe now.’’

KAP State Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has hit out at Qantas over revelations the airline has not paid corporate tax in two of the past 10 years.

“I am still waiting for Qantas CEO Alan Joyce to collect his Un-Australian of the year award which has been sitting in my office for the past six months,” Robbie said. “It’s disgraceful that an airline, founded in regional Queensland to serve people in these areas, now seems to take great delight profiteering off the backs of the same people it was created to serve. Airline prices have as much of a devastating effect on our regional communities as out of control electricity and insurance prices.”

“Alan Joyce’s renumeration in 2016 is reported as being almost $25 million, I think for most Queenslanders that’s pretty hard to swallow.

“There was a lot of chest beating when Qantas announced a record $1.53 billion underlying profit in 2016, up from a $975 underlying profit in 2015, while residents in Mount Isa and Cloncurry had to take out loans just to fly to the coast to visit family.

“I am hopeful the Federal Senate inquiry into regional airline operations that is currently underway will result in some airfare relief of regional Queenslanders.

 “People in regional Queensland have lost faith in the major airlines and they have a lot of work to do to win back that trust.’’