Katter's recruitment drive for new party

   * Jessica Marszalek
   * From: AAP
   * June 05, 2011 3:48PM

MAVERICK MP Bob Katter has launched a new political party he says will be a force to be reckoned with at the next federal and Queensland polls.

The colourful federal independent, who on Friday had lodged registration papers for Katter's Australian Party, on Sunday called for candidates, volunteers and donations to get his party off the ground.

Mr Katter said he had no choice, believing that the group of independents in Canberra - who decided the balance of power after last year's election and delivered a hung parliament - had achieved nothing.

"In the last election the people of Australia said, 'We're not going to vote for you any longer, we've had enough'," he said.

But voters had only got more of the same, he said.

Mr Katter said he would appeal to both city and country voters under his new banner, but would unashamedly represent agriculture.

Among his policies are:

- Repeal a carbon tax, if in place;
- Legislate to limit Woolworth and Coles to 22.5 per cent market share each;
- Deregulate industries like dairy;
- Make ethanol mandatory to reduce petrol prices;
- Significantly increase customs duty on products coming into Australia; and
- Relax recreational fishing rules.

Mr Katter said he would concentrate on winning seats in the upcoming Queensland election, due in early 2012, before contesting the next federal poll.

He asked for men and women who believed in something and would stand up for their constituents over the party machine to throw their hats in the ring.

"For those people that have been out there in a comfortable cocoon of big-party endorsement, well, happy days are at an end my friends," he said as a warning to the major parties.

"You're going to have to stand up and represent your people or you're going to lose your seat.

"We're coming after you."

But Mr Katter would not speculate on what kind of success he hoped for, instead referring to the achievements of One Nation in its heyday.

"If you'd told me when One Nation kicked off that they'd get 11 seats (at the 1998 Queensland election) I would have thought you were mad, you know," he said.

Mr Katter would not reveal candidates-in-waiting, saying he had to wait for the registration to be completed first.

He also called on politicians to jump ship and join him, although he said he was unsure he would want Queensland LNP politicians who had let the party machine dictate their leader.

Queensland LNP leader Campbell Newman said he doubted any of his team would want to switch, although he said he hadn't broached the issue with MPs.

But Mr Newman would not be drawn on whether Mr Katter would erode his vote.

"I'll leave that to the political commentators," he told reporters on Sunday.

"People need to understand that if they dabble with independents or minor parties they'll see (Premier) Anna Bligh get back in potentially.

"If you want change ... then you need to vote for the LNP team."

Tony Bradshaw wrote on Jun 5^th, 2011 at 12:29pm:


Colour scheme makes me think Labor.

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Oxymoron.

creep wrote on Jun 5^th, 2011 at 2:49pm:



... and that "German experiment used the SAME optic fibre

creep wrote on Jun 5^th, 2011 at 12:38pm:



I didn't conveiniently forget anything, it wasn't stated because it is not relevant to your initial statement.

Katter is an independant, and he did not alighn with the alp, in fact he stood alone on that matter you fool.

Go back to the kids table, you're making a fool of yourself here with the adults.

Keep our State Assets

    * The Australian Party will stop the Labor Party and the LNP selling off Queensland’s State owned power stations.
    * We will stop the sale of the Abbott point Coal terminal
    * We will stop any further sales of our strategic State owned assets and we will implement strategies to see a reversal of past asset sales where practicable.

Our state owned assets should be kept as state owned assets!

Australians have worked hard over the years to build and develop these assets and today, should be reaping their rewards and benefits. Our roads, ports and railways, water and electricity, the Snowy River Scheme are all infrastructure we should be immensely proud of.

The situation though, is that both of today’s bigger political parties seem determined to place these assets in the hands of multi- national corporations, selling them off in order to fund superficial projects aimed, not at bettering our country, but at protecting their own jobs at the next election. Time and time again, this has proven to deliver nothing but higher prices, and the loss of jobs.

This is something you will notice every time you pay for your electricity.

Since 2004, your average household bill has risen over $500 and is now flagged to rise again. One can only imagine the rise we will suffer if more of our electricity is sold to money- hungry corporations.

It's just not right that corporations (many foreign owned) end up getting the benefit of what has taken hard working Australians generations to build and pay off. Particularly when the generations that follow are left to pay the price, every day.


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Free Trade

Why are we supporting jobs in China, shutting down our industries and selling off our country to overseas corporations?

Back in 1986, when Paul Keating started the push for a ‘free market’, the Australian economy was stripped of all its defences. The Howard government continued the work with even more zeal and now both major parties champion the scrapping of subsidies, tariffs and government preferences for Australian manufacturing – All in the name of “Free Trade”.

These policies left only 2 possibilities;

1. Work under Chinese conditions – wage levels, environmental standards and work settings ...or.2. Close down all our manufacturing, agriculture and industry.

Since that time, it’s fairly obvious to see the effect on our industries.

   * 86% of cars on our roads used to be Australian made. Now only 21%,
   * One of Australia’s biggest ship builders, NQEA used to employ 1000 people. Now 60. The story for untold numbers of other companies across all markets is the same.
   * We were once 95% self-sufficient in oil, now we’re only 65%. So now we’re at the mercy of the world’s major oil producing nations for our supply and the corporation controlled markets for our price.
   * Our mining industry was once almost entirely Australian owned, as was dairy, sugar, meat process, railways and major construction. This is most certainly not the case today.
   * Sheep numbers have dropped from 174 million to 68million (In 1990, 15% of all Australian exports came from wool)
   * We used to have 33 million cattle. Now only 26 million.

Over the last 10 years Australia has signed free trade agreements With Singapore, Thailand and the USA.  According to a report Commissioned by the Victorian Branch of the Electrical Trades Union, even the Singapore free trade agreement has cost us jobs in the
manufacturing sector.

It is estimated that in total the three agreements have cost Australia 26,000 manufacturing jobs.

In the case of each country our imports have increased faster than our exports and, in the case of Singapore, our exports have gone backwards.

In the case of Thailand the composition of our trade has changed. Exports of vehicles fell from $4.6 million in 2005 to $1.8 million in 2007 while imports of motor vehicles tripled from $1 billion in 2004 to $3 billion.

If Julia Gillard has her way Australia will sign a free trade agreement with China. According to the ETU’s report, the best we could hope for is to lose another 7,000 jobs to China. The worst case would be the loss of another 160,000 jobs.

The Australian Party is committed to providing support and protection to Australian industries and reversing this madness, bringing jobs back home and reviving our once proud manufacturing and agriculture industries. To see this happen, we will push to ensure;

   * Australia does not sign any more free trade agreements, especially with countries like China, the social, labour, environment and financial policies of which make it impossible for Australia to compete.
   * A law is implemented requiring the Parliament to approve treaties before they are signed. Presently the Government of the day simply signs the Australian people up to watever international treaty takes their fancy without any requirement to consult the parliament of the people.
   * All Governments, where practical to purchase Australian goods only. The very first place where this should be implemented is through the purchase of Australian made cars for all governmental departments. Where governments can’t source locally made products they should be required to purchase imported product through Australian companies to allow opportunities for value adding, innovation, employment and the development of local warranty, repair and support facilities.

Lets once again become proud to be Australian Made.

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