Katter talks footy, ethanol and polls in Whitsundays

The first thing Bob Katter did when he came into Proserpine on Sunday was to visit his former on-field footy mate Laurie Goldman at the Metropole Hotel.

Late into Proserpine due to weather delaying his flight into Mackay, the outspoken leader of Australia’s newest party told his welcoming committee he’d "just go and say g’day to an old mate".

Goldman was behind the bar when Katter spotted him.

"This man …" Katter said slipping in behind the bar and turning to the audience of blokes on the other side, "is the toughest bugger I’ve ever seen on a football field," he said taking his hat off to the publican.

After a rock star reception in Gympie early last week, where the media likened Katter’s visit to that of Justin Bieber, after scores of bingo ladies waved and cheered at the man in the hat from across the street, Proserpine was somewhat quiet on a drizzly Sunday morning.

"Nobody knew much about me when I was an Independent. Now suddenly once we formed the party, I suppose it’s almost like people can buy shares in our policies. I don’t like using the word vision but it’s almost like we all have the same vision, the same hope for Australia," Mr Katter said on route to the Proserpine RSL in Chapman Street for his public meeting with candidate for the seat of Whitsunday Amanda Camm. Early polls tipped the Australia Party at 0.2 per cent, they soon moved up to eight and now Katter says they’re tracking a little higher than 14 per cent. Some 40 people gathered at the RSL upstairs to greet Katter applauding him as he climbed the stairs.

"I have asked scores and scores of meetings, blokes in pubs in drinking circles and people in the street and I ask them … "what is the difference between the ALP and the LNP?" nobody can tell me. If the two major parties are the North Pole … then Katter’s Australian Party is the South – that’s how far apart our thinking is. ALP and LNP believe in free markets, we believe in cutting Woollies and Coles back to under 20 per cent of the market. Currently having 88 per cent of the market where in America they have 23 per cent and they are squealing. Cutting the major supermarkets right back will give farmers a fair go," he said.

Mr Katter talked passionately about the travesty that was the de-regulation of the dairy, tobacco and sugar industry which he says brought farming communities to their knees.

"This is why my rage and hatred for the LNP runs so deep. I represented the biggest dairy industry in the region. This was back when I was part of the National Party. Now I saw this happen to sugar and tobacco and then they wanted to deregulate the dairy industry," the crowd was enthralled. "If you deregulate milk, we will be murdered. I argued. There are only two people to sell milk to in this nation. No one listened. The day after it was deregulated milk went from 59 cents a litre to 42 cents a litre, I then left and became an Independent. I was so disgusted," he said.

Katter has mega plans for the state and big plans for the Whitsundays including ethanol and electricity made from bagasse at the mills.

"Mining is unpredictable but there is about $5000 million the state can use from royalties. If we use it in the region it is raised then there will be money to do the things we want to do, like build an ethanol plant in the Whitsundays …Every other country has gone to biofuels, America, Brazil even China is making headways into it. Our party will immediately go to ethanol and we are committed to giving $200m plus to each sugar mill to burn the bagasse and make our own electricity. I hate to say this but obviously we would be giving the money to Mackay first because its mill is still Australian owned," he did add.

"The other parties can say what they like about our ethanol plan because believe me there is no one on this planet who can outdo me when it comes to knowledge on ethanol," he said.

Mr Katter spoke for over an hour in Proserpine before making his way to the beach to talk to the boaties about their ramp heartache at the VMR. "There may only be a few people here today, but every town, every village, every suburb and every city there are meetings being held and there is a huge army out there that wants this country back … back from the big businesses that own and fund the campaigns of the two major parties," he said.

Katter's Australia Party candidate for Whitsunday holding onto the pride of Australia

This girl has her sights set on success. Not for herself - but for the people of regional Queensland.

Meet Amanda Camm … an ambitious 32-year-old mother of three who wholeheartedly believes Katter’s Australian Party is the only party who will give a voice to the people in regional Queensland.

"On April 18 I will be 33, winning the seat would be a great birthday present, wouldn’t it?" joked the passionate girl who went to Kindergarten in Proserpine and speaks fondly of her grandma who religiously puts the Guardian aside for her every single week.

The day the government went into caretaker mode, Ms Camm from the northern beaches in Mackay announced she would be throwing her hat in the ring for the marginal seat of Whitsunday – along with Greens candidate Jonathon Dykyj, LNP’s Jason Costigan and high profile minister and sitting member Labor's Jan Jarratt.

"I’ve heard some people say that I have left my run too late. But I haven’t. As a woman we’re in a constant juggling act with careers, families, relationships … men just seem to do it, women evaluate. So here I am. I have no doubt that the time is right."

Ten days ago Katter’s girl for the Whitsundays met her illustrious leader at a party conference in Brisbane. She says what a lot of people don’t know about the man in the big hat is that he is a champion of women.

"Bob’s a man of his conviction. He’s getting something right as he’s been in public office for 40 years and he’s been very supportive of my candidacy," she said.

Ms Camm has spent the majority of her life in the Whitsunday, Mackay and Mirani districts and has connections with the agriculture, sugar, tourism and mining industries and has been involved in skills development, work force retention and next generation attraction as Chair of the Mackay Whitsunday agribusiness formation strategy.

Once elected, Ms Camm says she will work energetically for the Whitsunday electorate fighting passionately for reinvigoration of the sugar industry by mandating ethanol which she says will put more money in farmers’ pockets, establishing local health boards for local hospitals, supporting small business by lifting the payroll tax threshold and halting the sale of state assets.

"Over the next four and a half weeks I will be focusing on Katter’s Australian Party politics, my values for running and when I knock on people’s doors, walk into businesses and meet people in the street, people can judge me on face value."

Australia Party forms in the Whitsundays

The sun setting over Pioneer Bay on Monday night provided the ultimate backdrop for the very first gathering of Australia’s newest political party in the Whitsundays.

Katter’s Australian Party’s is not even eight weeks old - its birth barely registered - and people are showing interest from both major political camps keen to follow the bright new star.

Campaign director Luke Shaw is in the Whitsundays this week hoping to establish a level of support before seeking the ultimate jewel to represent the party and strive for the seat of Whitsunday.

“Queenslanders have had no leadership from either side of the spectrum. They’ve been let down by Labor who are constantly selling off state assets and they’ve had no decent opposition in years ... and if you have a weak opposition, you will have a weak party.

“Queenslanders have a right to feel disillusioned,” Mr Shaw said.

Some 20 people showed up at the initial interest-seeking meeting on Monday night at the VMR hall in Cannonvale where Mr Shaw explained the core values and principles of the party, their policies on free trade and how abhorred they were to see the continued selling off of the nation's assets - and their view on carbon tax.

“Axe the tax – it’s as simple as that. It doesn’t achieve anything.”

Elaborating on the core values and principles of the party, Mr Shaw said Katter’s Australian Party would stop the sale of Abbot Point coal terminal, stop the Labor Party and LNP selling off Queensland state owned power stations and ensure vital services 
such as water, electricity, health services and road networks were affordable and at a reasonable standard for all.

“I don’t want to take a personal swipe at the member for Whitsunday but she is the tourism minister and what is she doing for tourism?

“It's so sad to see all the shops empty or for sale in the main streets here! What is going on? Who is helping the people of the Whitsundays?”

Mr Shaw said within three to four weeks’ time, the Australian Party would have credible quality candidates ready to campaign for the seat of Whitsunday.

“We want to hear from people whose ideas resonate with that of the Australian Party’s.

“People who want to put Australia’s interest first especially in respect to ownership of agricultural land, people who are passionate about tourism in the Whitsundays and those who 
will vote in the interest of their electorate, consistent with their conscience.”

LNP candidate for the seat of Whitsunday Jason Costigan, who was in Brisbane on Sunday to hear the leader Campbell Newman's address to the party faithful at the LNP's state conference, said the only way to get rid of this tired, out-of-touch and wasteful Labor government and make Queensland a can do state gain was to vote LNP.”

“Minor parties and independents can't deliver.

“If you want proof, just have a look at that circus going on in Canberra,” Mr Costigan said.

The Guardian was not able to reach current member for Whitsunday and tourism minister Jan Jarratt for her comment.