Government needs to act to build biofuel industry
ETHANOL BENEFITS
With Australia’s fuel security under increasing threat, and farmers paying double for fuel and fertiliser, excuses are running out for government inaction on developing Queensland’s biofuels capacity.
The propping-up of Australia’s two existing oil refineries is just maintaining the status quo; what we really need is a nationwide biofuels mandate and a ban on oil exports, with that oil instead refined exclusively in Australian-owned and operated plants.
Successive governments have failed to prioritise the industry and enforce compliance with the four per cent ethanol mandate, costing regional Queensland untold numbers of jobs and economic opportunities, including stalled biofuel plants in the Burdekin, Ingham and in my own patch out at Pentland.
Farmers and millers want to invest in producing ethanol but say there’s no money in it, and they’re right.
The recently unveiled Sugar Plus vision and road map developed by the sugar industry and Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries recognises sugar cane’s value to the bioeconomy boom but neglects to put ethanol production front and centre.
It prioritises the industry’s role in feeding the world, followed by producing energy, followed by fabricating sustainable products, but ethanol production must take immediate precedence.
Australia needs to take a leaf out of India’s book, where ethanol is being considered a “game changer”.
The government there has committed to green energy and bankers and oil companies have paid up, with ethanol helping slash the country’s independence of mostlyimported fossil fuels.
Here in Queensland, the Palaszczuk Labor Government isn’t even ensuring that major fuel companies and retailers are obeying the four per cent ethanol mandate – the compliance rate is a dismal 2.9 per cent.
The KAP is working to re-visit and hopefully strengthen the ethanol mandate at the State-level as we speak.
In a perfect world, we’d have a nationwide mandate in place as well as waste-to-diesel technology, Australian-made electric vehicles for metropolitan public servants, and a ban on oil exports, which is all in the proposed Sovereign Fuel Security Bill being spearheaded by my father Bob Katter.
The plan would make Australia 80 per cent self-sufficient in fuel, rather than the current status quo which is ad hoc, insufficient and poses us to huge sovereign risk.
Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world and common sense is becoming less and less common in Canberra, so we must continue to agitate on this issue at every angle.
ROBBIE KATTER, Traeger MP
MISSION FAILURE
If you assembled the best CSI forensic teams on the planet with the very best of the best from every
country and gave them one job here in Townsville I would guarantee you they would fail in their mission. Their task would be to cordon off the Courthouse in the city and do a complete forensic analysis from front to back including every room and chamber and every nook and cranny only looking for a trace of one thing that has been missing for years in this building its called “Justice”. The only thing that this building is supposed to provide is “Justice” to our community but sadly there has been no sign of it for many many years! When I did Jury service in the eighties the Ballif told us that in the courts “Justice must not only be done but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done”. Well just ask one of the thousands of victims of car theft in Townsville if they have seen any trace of Justice for them over the past few years! The headlines last week about 5 youths arrested after crashing a stolen car needed a follow up with 3 released on bail in under one hour to show how broken our legal system is. As society we rely on laws and rules to maintain a peaceful existence but with over 100 cars stolen and over 160 break and enters in the past 4 weeks you can only describe living here in Townsville like a perverted reality game called “Anarchy rules” with who dares wins! This Queensland government and our local members will go down in history as providing the worst lawlessness and anarchy this country has ever seen. Crime has cost Queenslanders over a billion dollars in under two years in what has
become our biggest industry! (the crime industry) And if you are wondering why your insurance fees have gone through the roof, well they have had to pay out over a billion dollars in the past couple of years so they are just crawling it back. Now they want to lower the criminal responsibility age for only one reason its to get rid of a damming statistic and it has nothing to do with helping either us or the criminals. If you have a dog in your care and it bites someone you are held responsible but these fine young criminals are in the care of the government but they will not accept responsibility. We need an election right now to end this pain!
MIKE ABRAHAM, Bohle.
LIFE WITHOUT ISSUE
I refer to the article page 3 (TB) 10.08.22 Crisafulli lashes wasteful spending and the comments made as reported in the article by our illustrious Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk where extra police were in place at Townsville to address ongoing crime concerns. People should be able to live their lives without these incidents that are happening and causing them stress she apparently said.
She is absolutely right in what she says regarding people living their lives without stress I would also add without living in fear as well. So the question for her to answer is after seven years and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars spent on hair brain schemes when is she going to do something meaningful to deter the anarchy on our streets.
Every time escalating crime is mentioned to either one of her three representatives here in Townsville or the police Minister or anyone else the answer is always the same, more police more police. These people are somewhat slow on the uptake as after seven years and more police than ever before the crime rate is escalating and we have anarchy on our streets and the answer apparently is more police.
If more police are to be panacea then perhaps the criminals should show some respect for the uniform or their attitude towards law and order adjusted to encompass respect. As we, all know these criminals fear nothing as there is nothing to fear so without a meaningful deterrent crime will just continue unabated and as just reported in a recent court case, the reason a young impressionable individual committed crime was to impress is older siblings as he just wanted to emulate them.
What’s going to stop him from entering a life of crime not his siblings there should be an alternative like some form of a meaningful deterrent to stop him, he can then make a choice, commit crime get caught and suffer the consequences or live a life without crime without having to look over his shoulder all the time because as we all know the police seem to be quite good at rounding up criminals especially young ones but it’s what happens afterwards when the police have finished with them that matters.