Queensland’s sovereignty and ability to build much-needed houses is at dire risk, with both Brisbane parties choosing to chase green votes at the expense of the Queensland timber industry, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader Robbie Katter has said in Mareeba.

“The irony isn’t lost on the KAP that we have two major parties 3,000 kilometres away desperate to chase inner-city green votes, while the future of Queensland’s sustainable timber supply hangs in the balance,” Mr Katter said.

“The timber industry urgently needs long-term off-take agreements and secure rights to harvest, but neither Brisbane party is willing to commit to the future of Queensland’s critical timber supply.

“On one hand, we have rhetoric of ‘more houses for Queenslanders’, ‘more jobs for Queenslanders’, and then on the other we hear ‘there will be no trees cut down anywhere’, ‘conservation is key’ – the reality is we need a sustainable timber industry to house Queenslanders and keep Queensland jobs.”

KAP Candidate for Cook Duane Amos joined the KAP Leader and local timber business owner David Simms at the Mareeba Sawmill, and expressed his frustration that the Brisbane agenda pandered to the environment movement and culled jobs and development from Far North communities.

“I see it every day – a decision from Brisbane by someone who has no idea about the impact in our communities up here,” he said.

“They talk about renewable – well here’s the best renewable building material we can get, and yet the timber industry is being strangled and locked out of Queensland.

“Good businesses need certainty, not guesses. The KAP is firmly behind the Queensland timber industry who provide a sustainable building resource for Queensland’s housing crisis and driving economic activity in our communities with jobs and services.”

Mr Katter said while neither Brisbane party had the stamina to face the reality that Queensland urgently needed timber, the KAP would continue to push strongly for the future of the timber industry in North Queensland and securing Queensland’s future building materials.

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