GOAL BOOSTS LNP

contributed in their own way to Bill Shorten’s ignominious defeat in

May. Labor’s sitting Member in the seat of Herbert, Cathy O’toole, lost to pro-coal new chum LNP candidate Phillip Thompson.

The key to the LNP gaining a foothold in Townsville will be the quality and profile of its candidates. If the LNP could swallow its pride and welcome Sam Cox back into the fold, he could win a Townsville seat.

Mr Cox would have a much better chance of winning a state seat for the LNP than he has of beating Jenny Hill in the mayoral race at the next local government election. Whoever is telling him he can beat Jenny Hill needs their head read. Ms Hill will go into the election with the water pipeline Stages 1 and 2 under her belt as well as her solid demeanour during the Townsville flood crisis and subsequent recovery. And the stadium, despite controversies and cost overruns, is on its way to completion. They all mean a lot to Townsville. The LNP needs Sam

Cox and even if he doesn’t know it, Sam Cox needs the LNP.

Reef Bill dooms centres

AND while the Queensland Government tries to reassure regional Queenslanders it has their interests at heart, it is hellbent on turning towns and cities like Bundaberg, Sarina, Proserpine, Home Hill, Ayr, Ingham, Tully, Innisfail, Gordonvale and Mossman into ghost towns.

The State Government’s antifarming Reef Bill, aka the Environmental Protection (Great Barrier Reef Protection Measures) and other Legislation Amendment Bill, will turn this state’s sugar coast into an economic wasteland. In case you don’t know, this Bill has the authority to turn every cane farmer, fruit and vegetable grower and beef producer whose farms and properties lie in the Great Barrier Reef catchment, into criminals.

Their chemical use and farming practices will be monitored by Big Brother. Suppliers and agents could be forced to inform on their clients. It’s anti-queensland in the way it will cripple farming and it is antiAustralian in the way it could compel fertiliser and chemical suppliers to become government informants. That’s not how we do things in this country. THE French beat us hands down when it comes to protecting the traditional things in life.

The Government there controls supermarket growth in order to protect traditional shops like butchers and bakers. And now the French Government is looking to protect traditional rural noises such as crowing roosters.

Basically, if you are a rooster owner in France and someone complains about its noisy crowing you can tell them to faire chier (p*** off).

It wasn’t all that long ago that people complained

Keep in mind as well that beef and farming properties in the Reef catchment aren’t just along the coast, but extend as far west as Pentland, where Burdekin feeder streams, the Campaspe and Cape rivers, have their headwaters. Cattle stations and farms up to Greenvale, Mt Garnet and the Atherton Tableland, down to Alpha and the Belyando and out to Mt Coolon west of Mackay, will all be caught in the State Government’s Reef legislation net. Basically, every farm and property east of the Great Dividing Range – because all rivers and creeks that flow into the Great Barrier Reef about Aitkenvale man Jack Hutton’s roosters. The council got involved and Jack had to get rid of his roosters. He fought the good fight but as is so often the case, the whingers and whiners won. It was a terrible blow for Jack and he has never really recovered.

The bond that forms between a man and his chooks is sometimes unbreakable, but not when councils and courts become involved.

Sometimes you wish the council would just faire chier and stop meddling in people’s lives. lagoon are on the eastern side of the range – will become subject to these unprecedented and draconian laws.

And remember, this is a government that is supposed to have learned a lesson from the May 18 election and is now getting behind regional Queensland.

Instead they are insisting on going ahead with legislation that is an assault on regional Queensland. If the sugar industry shuts down as a result, sugar mills close and then businesses close as commerce grinds to a halt. There are four mills in the Burdekin and two at Ingham. Goodbye Ayr, Home Hill and Ingham. With friends like this in government looking after regional Queensland, who needs enemies?

BMP take-up lagging

THE sugarcane farming industry has made massive strides during the last 20 years in reducing farm runoff. Sediment and water catchment ponds on farms are commonplace.

The banks of creeks and streams that might have been cleared 100 years ago by great-grand pappy have in most cases been revegetated. But, despite these giant steps forward, there is one area where the sugarcane farming industry can improve: Best Management Practice, or “BMP”, as it is known. This is the industry’s exposed Achille’s heel and until more sugarcane growers become Bmp-accredited, proving that they are responsible and doing the right thing by the environment (read, the Great Barrier Reef) they will stand accused of not being good corporate citizens.

This is not to stay that most farmers are not already doing the right thing but until they have that signed piece of paper, they stand exposed and accused. At present only 425 growers of 1819 in the state are Bmp-accredited. Others are in the pipeline and moving towards accreditation, but clearly the urgency of the situation is not appreciated by a lot of growers.

Until BMP accreditation reaches saturation point across the growing sector, the State Government will continue to wield a big stick. If the sugarcane industry can convince the Government it is moving towards 100 per cent BMP take-up, the Government in turn should cut it some slack and water down this unAustralian reef Bill. The Bill as it stands is anti-farming and antiregion and deserves to be opposed every step of the way.

Rodeo hope sparks up

TALENTED Charters Towers steer wrestling electrician Ben Terry, 23, has just returned from doing a rodeo circuit in Canada.

He’d just got home when he found he’d made the finals and is now saddling up to go back over and do it all again. He’s made the finals cut for the Lakeland Rodeo Association in Alberta. The finals run from August 29 to September 1.

He’s in fourth place and is hoping to bring home the winner’s buckle.

Duck Pond wrecks fears

TOWNSVILLE yachties want to know what is happening with the four wrecks in the Duck Pond on the seaward side of the The Ville.

One old salt who phoned me this week reckoned something needs to be sorted out before someone unfamiliar with the Duck Pond sails smack bang into one and wrecks their own boat. He reckoned it’s something that needs to be sorted out by either the Port Authority or the Department of Harbours and Marine.