KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter, has endorsed the concerns raised by Retired Lieutenant General John Grey who has warned that the Federal Government should intervene on the sale of the Conflict Islands^[i] which sit between the Papua New Guinea and Australian coastline.

The Islands have been put up for sale by an Australian businessman and China is reported to be bidding for the purchase.

Mr Katter said this would carry serious national security risks knowing China’s increased presence in the South Pacific, and said the Federal Government needs to provide Australia with the necessary means to defend its enormous coastline and valuable resources.

“If the Government want to move to become part of the middle kingdom, then they should just stay out of it. But selling these Islands is only good so long as we stand ready to defend our ‘Island’.

“We have no sovereign essential services, we have no missiles and we have no rifles. At present there is not the remotest possibility of defending our island.

“We have no essential services. If China, or anyone else, embargoes our fuel, then we are on realistically three days of fuel.  The trucks bringing medicals to the local pharmacy and hospital can’t operate. Flights stop. Towns stop.  And as for our entire armed forces, well they’ve been rendered immobile.

“China owns, or controls, 42 percent of the electricity industry excluding the glass on our roofs of which they own near 100 percent. If it closes three or four power stations, you’re on intermittent power where you’ll be waiting for the sun to shine and the wind to blow.

“But what about the water? Who owns that? Truth is, we don’t actually know. But what we do know, is that the two biggest water sources were given to China. The Ord Stage 2 and Cubbie Station.

“Australia must provide its own Australian-owned essential services – our own electricity, water, and fuel and it must have a missile fortress wall of 200,000 missiles and five million combat rifles with people trained to use them.

“Instead we have 36,000 rifles and maybe a couple of hundred missiles to defend the biggest coastline on earth.

“We need the sovereign fuel security bill before the Parliament which will kick all foreign ownerships out of the electricity and water industry completely and secure our fuel supplies, with some exemptions for development projects of course.

“We Australians have a right to defend our home. We Australians have a right to defend our nation, but at present the Government have taken our right off us.

“It’s time they show some strength and defend this nation by stopping any sale of the Conflict Islands to China,” Mr Katter said.

[i] https://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/far-north-leaders-concerns-over-chinas-interest-in-conflict-islands/news-story/e1b07b2e90784e0ecbfb323a0caff527

20220829 Govt called to intervene on the Conflict Islands China sale