The ends that farmers and communities must go to protect what should be a no-brainer is just staggering, Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter has said.

Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter has today stood with AgForce, concerned farmers and community members, and the Federal KAP member for Kennedy Bob Katter MP at Brisbane’s Federal Court to condemn Glencore’s plan to pollute the Great Artesian Basin.

“It’s utterly disgraceful that the Queensland and Australian governments have failed to protect a natural resource that is the only reason Queensland is what it is today,” Mr Katter said.

In a bid to get a piece of the ‘climate-change’ incentives pie, Glencore plan to capture carbon emissions from a coal-fired power station and pump the waste into the pristine water of the Great Artesian Basin – and the Australian people will pay them Carbon Credits!

“You can’t make this stuff up!” Mr Katter said.

“The climate change brigade has infiltrated Brisbane and Canberra so much that they want to incentivise and allow international commodity companies to pollute the water that inland Queensland and Australia rely on – all in the name of saving the planet!

“Spare me!

“While the good citizens here in Brisbane hear ‘less emissions’ and feel good about themselves, hardworking farmers and rural Queenslanders hear ‘threat to life in inland Australia’.

“The Great Artesian Basin is sacrosanct.  Must not be tampered with.  Bugger off.  Full stop.   

“To think that the Federal Labor government have waved this diabolical proposal through, and Brisbane’s Labor party stands ready to follow suit, makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand right up.

AgForce today had their first hearing in the Federal Court in Brisbane to challenge the Federal Governments decision that the Great Artesian Basin is not a matter of national environmental significance.

“I applaud the concerted efforts of many agriculture and community groups who have been relentlessly and desperately trying to put an end to this almighty threat.

“AgForce are here at the Federal Court using voluntarily contributed funds from farmers and communities to defend the right of communities to exist west of the Great Divide.

“They shouldn’t have to!” Mr Katter said.

Queensland Farmers Federation (QFF) have brought together a diverse range of concerned producers, local governments, and even conservation groups, to lobby the Queensland government.

“I’m please to sponsor an official petition to the Parliament from QFF which is calling for immediate regulation change which will prevent the Great Artesian Basin from ever being used as dumping ground for pollution.

“To have conservation groups, local governments, and industry groups united on overwhelmingly opposing this imminent catastrophe speaks volumes about the perverse consequences of this and any future proposals,” The member for Traeger said.

Mr Katter has sponsored a petition to the Queensland Parliament that is calling for a ban on Carbon Capture and Storage in the GAB: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Work-of-the-Assembly/Petitions/Petition-Details?id=4059