Katter slams marine park plan
MAVERICK Queensland MP Bob Katter labelled the national marine park plan a "selfish mongrel act" and a product of the "greenie monster" during a noisy protest against the plan in Canberra on Monday.
Mr Katter joined fishing industry workers to protest the plan which would create the largest marine conservation park in the country.
He said some 2000 fishing jobs were lost in the previous LNP Government's Great Barrier Reef fishing bans, and now the Labor Government was "on target to wipe out the industry completely".
"And those rich people in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, who know nothing else except how to blood-suck off the rest of us who work, they cry: 'Oh gee, we've got to look after the fishers', and then go off to the most expensive restaurants in Australia that night - they're the people who tell us we're not allowed the right to make a living," he said.
While Mr Katter said the plan would close down the "greatest food production resource in the world", Environment Minister Tony Burke repeatedly has said the ultimate effects would be less than $30 million.
Monday morning marked the end of a 60-day public consultation period for the plan.
