‘Get stuffed’: Kennedy candidates call for radical change on climate policy

Farmers in the Far North’s food bowl have posed heated questions on climate change and net zero emissions targets to candidates for Kennedy as contenders make their final stump speeches to undecided voters.

Candidates for Kennedy, Carole Stanford (Greens), Mark Westcott (Trumpet of Patriots), Annette Swaine (LNP) and incumbent Bob Katter at a forum hosted by the Far North Growers Association at the Mareeba Leagues Club. Picture: Samuel Davis

Farmers in the Far North’s food bowl have posed heated questions on climate change and net zero emissions targets to candidates for Kennedy as contenders make their final stump speeches to undecided voters.

The FNQ Growers Association hosted four of the eight contenders at Mareeba Leagues Club this week with around 30 guests, predominantly working in the agriculture sector, in attendance.

Incumbent Bob Katter joined the LNP’s Annette Swaine, Greens hopeful Carole Stanford and the Trumpet of Patriots’ Mark Westcott to discuss crime, immigration, infrastructure, housing and cost-of-living in the 90-minute forum.

Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter addresses the audience at the Mareeba Leagues Club earlier this week. Picture: Samuel Davis

But Australia’s commitment to the Paris Agreement, efforts to limit global warming and protect the Great Barrier Reef drew the most passionate responses from candidates with Mr Katter calling for farmers’ voices to be heard.

“It’s about time we grew up,” the Member for Kennedy said. “Forget about this business and put our farmers and industries first.

“Stop playing this game that nobody else is playing.”

Mr Westcott disputed whether Australia’s current climate change policy would even make a difference given its relatively small population.

“I get up in the morning in Mount Isa and it’s 22 degrees. By the afternoon it’s 46 degrees,” he said.

“There’s your global warming. They’re worried about 1.5 degrees over a thousand years. Get stuffed.”

Greens candidate for Kennedy, Carole Stanford. Picture: Samuel Davis

In response, Greens aspirant Carole Stanford disputed the climate forecast provided by the Clive Palmer-backed contender.

“The figures that you mentioned were slightly out, sir,” Ms Stanford said. “Initially the target was that we’d try to stop warming of 1.5 degrees by 2100. We’ve already hit that.

“We’re going up on a trend. We can only survive in a small range of temperatures.

“If we’re getting more days of 50 degrees in certain places, they won’t be liveable anymore. Our biodiversity, plants and animals will not survive either.”

An increase in global temperatures posed the greatest threat to the viability of Australia’s farming industry, Ms Stanford said.

“Carbon emissions are affecting what’s happening to us now in terms of temperature,” she said.

“Where’s it (food) going to come from if we have longer droughts? If we have more variability in our rainfall? We’re going to be in trouble.”

While the LNP’s Annette Swaine challenged some of the doomsday scenarios around climate change, the former police officer offered a more cautious response.

“We need to be careful,” she said. “In 100 years time our children may look back and go, ‘What the hell?’

“We have the technology and the ability to talk to people who know these things.”

Mr Westcott said the Trumpet of Patriots would seek to sack two million public servants, if elected. Mr Katter holds a 13 per cent margin in Kennedy.

WHAT THE CANDIDATES SAID ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Bob Katter – Member for Kennedy

The gladiator’s going out into the ring. He says, ‘Hey, give me your helmet and shield!’ The gladiator says, ‘This other bloke has a helmet and a shield’. The other bloke says, ‘Oh, no mate. It’ll make you tough if you fight without a helmet and a shield.’ And the gladiator says, ‘No, it won’t make me tough. It’ll make me dead’. And that is a very good analogy. I played rugby league all my life. I never heard a coach say, ‘Hey guys, play fair’. He said, ‘Go out there and kill ‘em.’ This is a brutal, blood thirsty contest, international trade and we’re the biggest wimps on the planet.

Mark Westcott – Trumpet of Patriots

Net zero is a pipe dream. It’s rubbish. United Nations can get stuffed. Bunch of bloody commos can go to hell. World Economic Forum they can bugger off. The whole lot of them can get stuffed. It’s about time we bloody grew some balls and told all these bloody wankers to get lost.

Annette Swaine – LNP

I don’t like it when I hear about restrictions on small businesses. However, we need to be sensible. I don’t see how it should affect people who are working hard and trying to grow our food and run our farms. It’s not going to make an ounce of difference to the rest of the world collapsing.

Carole Stanford – Greens

It’s important that we have a good education system, funding for TAFE and university students because we’re going to need some damn good thinkers for the challenges that we face. We need independent thinking, not just people toeing party lines like we see in the major parties and we need to hold our leaders to account.

Originally published as ‘Get stuffed’: Kennedy candidates call for radical change on climate policy