Bob Katter: Qld government like Nazi secret police over flood closures

Independent MP Bob Katter has likened the Queensland state government to the Nazi secret police in a blustering rant about road closures in the state’s far north due to flooding. A coastal trough linked to ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper has delivered months of rain to the state’s far north over the weekend, leading emergency officials to close roads inundated with flood waters. But Mr Katter, who represents the division of Kennedy – which is affected by the flooding – labelled the state’s government as the “Gestapo” for the closures, saying the roads had been used in “infinitely worse conditions to this a million times”. “There’s the Gestapo out there saying: ‘oh, you can’t use that’,” Mr Katter said in an interview on Sky News, brandishing a piece of driftwood. “We don’t want Gestapo from Brisbane telling us what roads we can’t or can use. “The people of Doomadgee, [Gulf of Carpentaria indigenous leader] Murrandoo Yanner and I had to say well we’re walking through the [road] barrier tomorrow. “That’s it. We’re sick of being locked up here in North Queensland.” Mr Katter slammed the state government for investing billions of dollars in green energy projects and the 2032 Brisbane Olympics while a tunnel he had proposed between Mareeba and the south of Cairns had not been funded. “All three pathways to the coast are all cut, yet again,” Mr Katter declared, referring to the closure of the Palmerston Highway, Gillies Range Road and Kurandra Range Road. “One little tiny tunnel and we’ve got open ground forever. “The government can build 36 kilometres of tunnels in Brisbane, but they can’t find one kilometre of tunnel for the million people of North Queensland.” Hitting back at claims that the cyclone was as severe as previous natural disasters to inflict the state, Mr Katter said Jasper was a “mild” cyclonic event. “The towering ignorance of these people is extraordinary. I mean, this is really mild,” Mr Katter said. “Compared with [2006 Tropical Cyclone Larry] it’s hardly a cyclone at all.”

Link to the original story: https://thewest.com.au/news/independent-mp-bob-katter-likens-queensland-government-to-nazi-secret-police-over-flood-road-closures-c-12944837