My wife is adamant that years ago she saw Bob Katter drive through (I think it was Ayr) in a ute and yelled out the window for two girls to "Get 'em out!"

I asked if she could be mistaken.

Her reply "Have you seen Bob Katter Jnr?"

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Aug 25^th, 2010 at 1:36pm:


True Andrei...but Townsville is, after all, a tourist town...beaches, heaps of motels etc..
It's not a 'life-support system' for farms, cattle stations and mines....

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Aug 25^th, 2010 at 1:50pm:



I was there that day Andrei. What he actually yelled out was, "what a drought!",  but she got em out anyway.  Good sport that girl!

gizmo_2655 wrote on Aug 25^th, 2010 at 1:53pm:


Is it?
It isn't very touristy - though Magnetic Island is very nice.

Cairns is the tourist place. Townsville seems to be quite un-touristy.

The Strand has been done up very nicely though in the last few years.

Mr Katter told the audience he was concerned that

free trade was decimating rural Australia.

"It's wonderful to free trade ... but if you're doing it and no one else is doing it, it will close down your food industries and your manufacturing industries," he warned.

Mr Katter said Australia had become a net importer of fruit, vegetables, pork and seafood, and was on track to become a net importer of food in general. He said this was disastrous for the bush.

"Every year you own a business you know it's going to get less and less," he said.

"Every year you know your kids are going to leave because there's no jobs for them in the local town."

Two of his constituents had to pull their own teeth out because they could not find a dentist, he said.

Mr Katter spoke against the stranglehold of Coles and Woolworths on the grocery market, saying this was difficult for farmers.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-election/independents-sevenpoint-pathway-to-power-...

Straight from Katters mouth less than 2 hours ago.
Got that link yet Mellie or was it all lies?

I would not support any government that needed to acquiesce to demands from Bob Katter.
As I said from the start, as soon as it become likely that whoever was to govern would need to form a loose coalition of sorts, with the independents, that I thought that both Tony Windsor, and Rob Oakeshott presented as well spoken, moderate people, that Labor should be able to form a working relationship with.

I just cannot see the possibility of Katter working co-operatively, for the good of the whole country, as a likely scenario, irrespective of whether he is a decent bloke to have a beer with, or indeed get in a bar room brawl with, as muso quipped.

While all independents would, as expected, promote the needs of their local communities, I just cannot imagine Katter expecting anything less than what would amount to massive pork barrelling for his electorate, and I could not condone either major party doing that.

He also holds some views that are just so diametrically opposed to many Greens policies, that the possibility of him moderating his position enough to make working with them as well as Labor, seem highly unlikely.

With that in mind, I think we may speculate that unless Labor wins another seat, and gets to 73, and can work out a deal that does not include Katter, then Tony Abbott should get the chance to try and form a government with the support of Katter and the other two independents.

Personally I would rather see Labor given the chance to complete building a great infrastructure project like the Fibre Broadband Backbone, as well as implementing the rest of their schools infrastructure upgrades,  and their trade training ventures.
There is also the issue of the tax on windfall profits in the mining sector, which an Abbott led government, has promised to dump, effectively placing billions of dollars back into the pockets of billionaires, when we could see that money used improving, Health and Education.

So while I most definitely think Australia would be better served by a Labor government that would steer us through any looming recessionary trends, with far more concern for the human impact than an Abbott government would, I just cannot see how Bob Katter could ever soften his views long enough to work with both Labor and the Greens, the ideological divide is just too great.

Dsmithy70 wrote on Aug 25^th, 2010 at 2:17pm:



Yeah but Smithy that's Katter's opinion - it's not necessarily right.

Katter and his ilk would most likely be in favour of protectionism - which has far greater damaging factors to a small country like Australia in the global economy.

If protectionism carries the day you'll have the EU, NAFTA and Asia Pac shut up shop and deal internally.

Europe needs to import nothing, the US needs to import nothing.

Australia would be right up shyte creek.

Notice the 2nd line
"It's wonderful to free trade ... but if you're doing it and no one else is doing it, it will close down your food industries and your manufacturing industries," he warned.
This is the main argument we are subsidy free where as the rest of the world is not.

I'm all for free trade when its fair.
No subsidies no tarrifs
10% sub 10% tarrif on import
etc