GRAZIER Tom Harris has been named the Katter Australia Party’s NSW Senate candidate for the federal election and has kicked-started his campaign by criticising Tony Windsor’s choice to side with Labor after the 2010 federal poll.
KAP leader MP Bob Katter unveiled the new political suitor at Parliament House in Canberra today and was also grilled about whether he’d support Malcolm Turnbull’s LNP or Bill Shorten’s ALP, if another hung parliament eventuated, after July 2.
The Queensland MP chose not to side with the ALP, to break the 17-day negotiation deadlock after the 2010 election, by assessing the main parties against his list of 20 core policy priorities; a strategy he’ll use again, if the situation is repeated this year.
“That’s what I did last time and ruthlessly closed my eyes and just said, ‘who’s got the most ticks and you get the tick from me’,” he said.
“Now whether Tony Abbott was playing it honestly or not that will have to be left up to the history books.
“As to whether Julia (Gillard) was playing it honest, whatever else I might say about it, she was honest and she didn’t give me much at all, out of my 20 points.”
Mr Harris – a fifth generation grazier from central NSW - said Mr Windsor siding with Labor in the hung parliament was “a very strange decision; especially given he came from a conservative electorate”.
“If I’d been in that electorate (New England) I think I would have been very disappointed that he swapped over but he made his decision for his reasons,” he said.
Mr Harris said if the balance of power negotiations repeated at this year’s election, whichever party came closest to the list of 20 policy demands “that’s who we’d go with”.
Mr Katter said a Rural Reconstruction Board to help ease pressure on farmers struggling with debt and tax measures to support a biofuels industry would be in the top five items on any newly formulated list.
But the KAP leader said he needed some time to consider the composition of his 20 items this time around.
Mr Harris said the rural reconstruction board and changes to 417 visas to protect jobs for Australian workers headed his list of policy priorities.
Mr Katter said he did not think Mr Windsor would be challenging Mr Joyce in New England at this election, unless he was extremely confident of winning.
“I know him very well and he just doesn’t strike me as the sort of person who would be putting his hand up unless he was absolutely sure he’d win,” he said.
But Mr Katter said his former independent crossbench colleague needed to consider supporting his list of 20 policy priorities in any balance of power talks; especially moves to boost ethanol production in Australia.
“I think Tony’s got to think about this - if he gets the balance of power again he has to sit down and with people like myself to get something out of it for his area,” he said.
“This time he has got to look at his conscious and say ‘You know, if I’d have gone with Bob on ethanol, we’d now have it in Australia.
“Is it better to send $23,000 million a year to buy petrol off the Middle East or to send it into rural and regional Australia – who is running this country?”
Mr Katter said most Australian voters couldn’t care a less if Mr Turnbull or Mr Shorten was Prime Minister but the best way to prevent them having “immense power” was to back smaller parties like the KAP.
He said his party’s use of balance of power negotiations in the Queensland parliament had already resulted in a rural reconstruction bank and support for ethanol production.
He also accused Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce of being wedded to the Liberals in Coalition.
“Barnaby Joyce will never walk and that’s why he’ll never exercise the power that I’ll exercise if we can get two or three Katter Party members and we’re very much campaigning to get them in there and in particular in the Senate,” he said.
In calling a double dissolution election, Mr Katter said the Liberal party were “going for dictatorial powers”.
“God help this nation; every single asset that this nation owns will be foreign owned,” he said of the potential re-election of a Coalition government.
“Your jobs will be taken by masses of people coming from overseas into this country.
“God help this country if they get that dictatorial power but thanks to Tom Harris for coming forward and doing what he can to stop them getting that dictatorial power.”
Mr Katter said the Australian Coal Seam Gas industry was expected to earn $25,000 million for the Australian economy this year “but the benefit for Australians is nil”.
He said that money “just simply comes in and boomerangs back out” with no wage structure in place and mining companies paying no taxes, due to transfer pricing arrangements.
“So what do we get out of it?” he said of CSG mining.
“We get out of it nothing except a polluted pincushion in inland Queensland and NSW.”
Mr Harris grew up on the family farm near Orange and now runs a sheep and cattle property at Molong, nearby.
He said he was running for the KAP in the Senate for NSW at this election “because there are farmers all across this country who are struggling and things are harder than they need to be for them”.
“I’ve got two young children and I really worry about what sort of future they’re going to have and what sort of future Australia’s going to have if they keep voting in ALP and LNP governments,” he said.
“For me they merge into one and it doesn’t matter which side of politics is in power, we seem to have the same outcomes - rural debt is growing and continues to grow.”
Mr Harris said simple changes could be made to arrangements in the Murray Darling Basin Plan to return 20 per cent water to farmers to increase their viability.
“Simple things can be done to make life a lot easier for a lot of people but no one seems to be terribly interested in these things,” he said.
