Katter pushes PM to drive Galilee rail line

Bob Katter has asked Scott Morrison to chair an urgent meeting between stakeholders in the Galilee Basin.

Independent MP Bob Katter. Picture: Kym Smith

Maverick independent Bob Katter has asked Scott Morrison to chair an urgent meeting between stakeholders in the Galilee Basin, as he attempts to gain support for a government-owned rail line to open up the precinct for coalmining.

The north Queensland MP — who the Prime Minister has been keen to keep onside, given the govern­ment’s weak numbers on the floor of the parliament — called Mr Morrison last week and asked him to make the trip to centra­l Queensland.

Mr Katter said he wanted to ­ensure that the rail line would allow for the exploration of the entire­ basin, rather than favour the Adani ­project.

Under a scaled-down proposal, Adani wants to build a rail line from its Carmichael mine that would link to existing coal export infrastructure controlled by ­rail freight company Aurizon.

“I want them to put a railway line right to the centre of the Galilee­ (Basin) under the auspice of the federal government,” Mr Katter told The Australian.

“One of the major people involve­d in Galilee has said he can pull the major stakeholders ­together, including Adani. There is nearly a dozen Australian companie­s, particularly in the northern end — well, they are as far away as the moon as the Adani railway line.”

Mr Katter said a government-owned line would open up the entire­ precinct for development, including from the China Stone mine, which he claimed would be “much bigger than Adani”.

“If (Adani) gets that railway line, it controls half of Australia’s coal reserves,’’ he said.

“Whoever builds the railway line will control the Galilee, and that is what turned the politics of Queensland upside-down.

“I promised the good lord up in heaven that I would not use the word Adani again.

“Because it (the rail line) has got nothing to do with Adani.”

Mr Katter said he was starting to agree with former prime minister Paul Keating, who described the member for Kennedy as the “last socialist in the federal parliament”.

“I am beginning to think I ­probably am, because I am the only one who believes the Aust­ralian people should own that railway line, and not a foreign corporation,” he said.

A spokesman for One Nation leader Pauline Hanson welcomed Mr Katter’s call for a government-funded rail line.

“If you look back to 2016, when Pauline was first elected, she strongly advocated for the railway line being built by the federal governm­ent, which would generate more than $1 billion a year in ­revenue once mining production ­­for the region reached full prod­uc­tion,” the spokesman said.