IN excess of 200 primary producers and industry stakeholders attended the Charters Towers Rural Crisis Summit hosted by the Katter United Party (KAP) today and emotions ran high on several occasions.
Queensland Agriculture Minister Bill Byrne was at the brunt of several emotional outbursts from members of the audience who took offence to several points in his address. Mr Byrne opened his address saying that nothing he was likely to hear at the summit would surprise him or in any way be a revelation.
He said he realised that water security was of paramount importance to a successful grazing operation but his government would not be building any dams. One of the reasons he gave for that was that there was little economic return to the government from building agricultural dams.
This incensed some in the audience and he was told in no uncertain terms that he was very wrong and his vision very narrow if he thought that increased agriculture production would not bring a healthy return to the government.
He also stated that a major reason for not building dams was that the government’s resources were finite.
This statement was later addressed by the Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter who said all of the dams, rail lines and major road infrastructure built in Australia had been financed by borrowing and that money was repaid from the revenue earned from having the improved infrastructure.
A full report will appear in North Queensland Register September 3 edition.
