Katter coy on plans as chances of a hung parliament fade away
Bob Katter’s hopes of playing “piggy in the middle” with Labor and the LNP have been dashed with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confidently forming a majority in the House of Representatives in an embarrassing loss for the Coalition.
Cairns
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Bob Katter’s hopes of playing “piggy in the middle” with Labor and the LNP have been dashed with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confidently forming a majority in the House of Representatives in an embarrassing loss for the Coalition.
The Member for Kennedy steamrolled to victory on Saturday night, seeing off a determined campaign from the LNP’s Annette Swaine and six other rivals for the sprawling seat.
But the maverick MP’s plans for the crossbench to leverage a minority government for more funding in their electorates won’t eventuate with the ALP having claimed 86 seats with 15 still in doubt on Sunday evening.
“It’s a grim scenario,” the 79-year-old said. “It’s a government with very little concern for the north.”
Mr Katter had hoped a hung parliament would force the major parties to grant his wishlist of key items for his electorate, including building a $1bn floodproof tunnel connecting Cairns to the Atherton Tablelands.
Additionally, the outback MP has lobbied for a dam, estimated to cost hundreds of millions, to be built near Hughenden, around 400km southwest of Townsville.
Mr Katter said it was “heartbreaking” to see opposition leader Peter Dutton lose his seat on election night.
“It will be a difficult three years for Queensland,” Mr Katter said.
“Peter would have been very good for the country. It’s a cruel game, politics. It’s a very unfair game. But they (the Coalition) ran a terrible campaign. It was so bloody awful.”
One project the Member for Kennedy won’t be supporting is Cairns Regional Council’s $450m Securing Cairns’ Housing Foundations project to accelerate the construction of homes in the city’s southern growth corridor.
The move would single-handedly destroy the region’s sugar industry, Mr Katter said.
“That’s being pushed by a bunch of morons and I don’t hesitate to call them that,” he said.
“You are consciously deciding to close the whole of the sugar industry in Far North Queensland. Those developments are a tombstone for the Gordonvale Sugar Mill.
“The whole industry closes down and 2000 people’s livelihoods will be gone. The farmers will get a huge amount of money and go off into the setting sun.
“But for every farmer you’ve got 100 other people that depend upon the industry.”
Newly elected Member for Leichhardt Matt Smith said he supported the project.
“I have met with growers and they’ve expressed concern that the sugarcane industry is under threat from development,” he said.
“The Mount Peter master planning has been going on for well over a decade now and I’m pretty sure they’ve taken it into account.”
After working 80-hour weeks on the campaign trail, Mr Katter said he was looking forward to taking a short break.
“I’m absolutely exhausted,” he said. “All I want to do is watch rugby league and go to sleep.”
Prior to the election, Mr Katter had characterised himself as the “piggy in the middle” in the event of a hung parliament.
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