STADIUM IS GALLING

IN this week’s papers we read that the state Labor government is planning to spend $1bn on another Taj Mahal in, you guessed it, Brisbane.

They’re going to knock down the Gabba, a perfectly good 40,000-seat stadium, to build a new 50,000-seat stadium.

So, it’s going to cost $1bn for an extra 10,000 seats – or $100,000 per extra seat.

The major parties only care about Brisbane.

Meanwhile, in Far North Queensland we have a major highway permanently down to one lane at Kuranda.

Seventy thousand people are trapped from FNQ’s biggest city and the state government has known about the problem for six years and has done nothing about it.

The Liberal and Labor state governments have not chipped in a single cent for a new dam or irrigation scheme in north Queensland for 30 years.

The Hells Gates Dam (revised Bradfield Scheme) proposal is sitting on the shelf ready to go.

It would droughtproof North West Queensland, double cattle production and provide huge, new industries for North Queensland such as petrol (ethanol), electricity, timber, sugar and algae technology producing stockfeed for animals.

Hughenden, the Big Rocks Weir and North Johnstone Transfer have also been neglected and are ready to go.

We have a hospital system that is falling apart, with residents having to fly or drive hundreds of kilometres for dialysis.

Until we stand up on our own two feet and tell Brisbane’s major parties to stick it up their jumper, we will continue to be treated as the poor cousin. Bob Katter, Kennedy MP