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FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND
No future in Green - Katter
BOB Katter, Member for Kennedy, has slammed the net zero target as destructive to the economy, wilderness and wildlife, arguing that instead the Government should be working toward a future where there are no restrictions on coal mining or coal exporting, and where all future power stations are green, built using zero-emission technology. “Power stations should be built in the north where there is unlimited water and constructed as High Efficiency, Low Emissions (HELE) coal-fired algae-tec power stations,” he said. “This, together with the implementation of the Sovereign Fuel Security Bill, which has the support of the crossbench, will take Australia into emissions that would be comparable to pre-settlement.” Mr Katter said farmers have been unfairly targeted in the climate debate and should be the last people to take the fall on achieving net zero. “Net zero will cripple mineral processing and agriculture,” he said. “This country has only two exports: minerals and agriculture and if you can’t process the minerals, you can’t export it. If you’ve got to send away 50 percent of Australian dirt, and only 50 percent Australian metal, you’re going to go broke. “The French and the European Union have said, ‘if we remove the farmers, we have no one to look after the land’. I will take anyone who cares, on a tour of the sugar cane farms that are now abandoned. “One two-hundred-acre farm bought by the green-brigade in the hope of returning it to the pristine wilderness is completely covered in giant sensitive weed – there is no pristine wilderness, just invasive weeds.” Mr Katter was also critical of the Treasurer’s views that the country has no choice but to meet net zero by 2050 given the reliance on foreign investment. “Josh Frydenberg is a very good man, and very good Aus-
Friday October 1, 2021
tralian, but Josh has to get his head out of the free-market wombat hole. 20 percent of our entire superannuation monies is going into foreign stock markets when it could be put into development on Australian soil. “Unless the Government comes to recognise that serious money has to be freed up for development, we are doomed to fail. “We people that live outside the metropolitan areas get sick and tired of hearing from the pavement pansies who wouldn’t know whether their pants were on fire, in fact they have probably never lit a fire and wouldn’t know how and now they want to blow up our natural wonderland. “They wouldn’t know that there are some 15 million wild pigs threatening our cassowaries, turtles and dunnarts, concentrated mostly in the northern part of Australia, or that there is 12 million hectares of heavy infestation of prickly acacia weed across the north. “So while they are preoccupied with saving the planet by shutting down the minerals industry, shutting down the coal industry, the cattle industry and the cane industry, the entire source of revenue for the country, in the meantime, the bush and its native flora and fauna is being totally wiped out by foreign pests and weeds.
DAVID GARDINER MELDRUMS Bakery Café in Grafton Street, Cairns has kept baking its way through the COVID pandemic thanks to strong local support and a range of popular flavours. Locals love their ‘old favourites’ such as chunky steak pies, and steak, bacon and cheese. These plus a range of other fillings including curry, chilli, and steak and kidney, are what keep dedicated customers such as office workers and tradies coming back to satisfy their hunger time after time. “It’s because of our secret recipe we use with our meat,” says Daniel Freebody, who took over the established bakery about a year ago from original owner Graham Meldrum. “It’s prior cooked and then the ingredients we put in it makes it taste amazing.” When Graham retired, he didn’t actually leave Meldrum’s until he had spent six months training up Daniel and his bakers on the special recipes and methods, he had refined over the 15 years since the bakery opened. “With our pastries we make them a special way; it takes a bit longer than what most bakeries do because we do it our special way, but we hand-craft each one individually.” Unlike other food businesses in the region which have had to cut staff and hours, or even close, COVID-19 certainly has not direly affected Meldrum’s. The bakery’s pies and cakes have built up a reputation not only in the local market but also with tourists – both domestically and overseas. Daniel is looking forward to the day, hopefully within
the next few months, when international and state borders re-open. Before COVID, Japanese and Chinese tourists would come to the café “in droves” because they had heard about Meldrum’s pies on social media. “So, when lockdown comes out that’s obviously where we’ll get a lot of our visitors, from overseas,” Daniel says. “It is also very well-known Australia-wide.” Meldrum’s employs eight staff in the bakery and behind the shop counter but Daniel says he hopes that increases once borders are re-opened and the tourism trade returns. They also do special orders and catering for office functions, birthdays, and the like, adding special order items such as mini pies, sausage rolls and sandwiches to their menu.
Warren ENTSCH MP Federal Member for Leichhardt
y t i l i b ta S d n a ip h Leaders 200 Mulgrave Road, Westcourt QLD 4870 warren.entsch.mp@aph.gov.au
07 4051 2220
warrenentsch.com.au
Authorised by W. Entsch, Liberal National Party of Queensland, 200 Mulgrave Road, Westcourt QLD 4870.
WarrenEntschMP
