The Hon. Robbie Katter, Member for Traeger (Qld), Media Release, 4 April 2024
If the recent Local Government election results have shown us anything, it’s that Queenslanders want change from the status quo, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has said.
“The LNP seem to think they’re a shoo-in, but as the true Opposition in North Queensland we are calling them out as being a void of policy,” Mr Katter said.
Mr Katter said he was pleased the KAP youth crime policy, which he had advocated for seven years, is resonating well with the wider community, and was now calling on the State LNP to commit to the North-Queensland born idea of Relocation Sentencing.
He said while he had been hearing the LNP use a lot of the same language as the KAP when it came to policies, and imitation was regarded as a form of flattery, it was time for the major party to commit its words to action.
“The LNP must come out from the shadow of their Federal Colleagues and tell Queenslanders if they are serious about fixing youth crime.
“Sweeping motherhood statements and hiding behind Federal announcements doesn’t fix this insidious problem – real commitment and action does,” The member for Traeger said.
Multiple political heavyweights have expressed support for the KAP Relocation Sentencing policy which now include three local governments – Townsville, Cairns, and Mareeba. Queensland Labor want to extend the on-country program, and the Federal National Party have almost gone word-for-word with KAP while describing its “outback camp” youth crime solution.
“It’s taken seven years for Queensland Labor and the LNP’s Brisbane headquarters to realise that North Queensland has the answers to our state’s youth crime epidemic”, Mr Katter said.
“We hear the LNP recently talking about removing detention as a last resort, but that on its own doesn’t solve the problem,“
“KAP have been driving real policy, for real change, and are ready and willing to brief the Brisbane-based ALP and LNP on the North Queensland way.
“We know that youth offenders must be mandatorily detained, remotely relocated, and intensively rehabilitated, if we have any hope of regaining the Queensland we know and love,” Mr Katter said.
