Independent MP for Kennedy, Bob Katter, has released his wish-list, which he has presented to Gillard and Abbott:

• 10% of all mining royalties to go into a north Queensland infrastructure fund, equating to $1 billion a year.
• A Coordinator General’s office set up in north Qld to drive new projects
• Dams and weirs built around Cloncurry and Hughenden to irrigate new crops
• Extra indigenous health funding
• A commitment to proper broadband in the bush
• A re-commitment to the copper string project, to build massive powerlines to take power from south of Townsville to the northwest Qld mineral province
• Protection for banana farmers from cheap imports.

Boy oh boy, isn’t old Bob a pro-growther! Just full-blown expansionism! Not the slightest hint of a sustainability ethic, which puts him and me at stark odds.

He is NOT the sort of person that we want holding the balance of power. The best thing he can do is side with the major party that ends up losing, so that any agreement made to address his wishes by either major, which is dependent on them winning power, is nullified and voided.

By the way, I agree with him about extra indigenous health funding, protection for banana farmers and proper broadband in the bush.

Your thoughts?

Tell 'im 'es dreamin'

I posted this teaser from yesterday's Crikey on another thread, but it seems appropriate here:

<< Bob Katter, energy corridors and conflicts of interest

by Bernard Keane and Wendy Bacon

A key element of Bob Katter’s regional development wish-list presented to the major parties will directly benefit companies owned or controlled by Katter’s brother-in-law, and was spruiked by the Member for Kennedy for months in 2009 before Katter acknowledged the conflict of interest. >>

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/09/02/bob-katter-energy-corridors-and-conflicts-of-interest/

Unfortunately, to read the whole thing you have to register at Crikey, but you can do so for free.

<< He is NOT the sort of person that we want holding the balance of power. >>

I agree. This clown's a relic from the Joh era, with apparently the ethics to match.

CJ..don't you hate it with the other side of politics is a little bit as bad as yours? :)

I've already exposed the rotting corpse of green vested political interest.. don't poke it or the blowies will all rise and swarm you.

GO BOB !

No you haven't, Boazy. All you've done is mutter darkly about some mega-conspiracy involving Al Gore and so-called "communists", without a skerrick of actual evidence.

If you have any evidence of Greens MPs with the kind of conflicts of interest that the odious Katter evidently has, please put up or shut up. I'm sure you'll do neither.

The three indipendents that are yet to decide are in my view caught between a rock and a hard place.

If they side with labor, thier home electrit will linch them at the next election.

My bet is they will side with tony and hope for the best, otherwise they had best start looking for a life ater polotics in three years, or less, if we have an early election. Wish list or not!