Independently Owned, Locally Grown, Community Loved
North Queensland Parliamentarians Bob Katter and Shane Knuth. Photo supplied
This Thursday's public meeting in Ingham for North Queensland Parliamentarians Bob Katter and Shane Knuth to listen to our community, will get underway around 6pm in the Lees Hotel beer garden on 12th November.
All topics are on the table - including insurance affordability, disaster preparedness, cyclone recovery, and the future of our sugar industry - so come along and have your say, to give us your riding instructions to take to Parliament.
With consultation on the Sugar Code of Conduct now closed, a report is expected to be presented to Parliament in 2027. Any legislation that weakens the Code or strips growers of their right to independent arbitration would spell disaster for our cane industry.
Our growers deserve a fair go, fair prices, and the right to have disputes independently arbitrated.
Meanwhile, with cyclone season at our doorstep and the insurance affordability and underinsurance crisis continuing to undermine the resilience of North Queensland households, businesses and communities, we want to hear directly from the people who live and work through this.
Thousands of kilometres from southern capitals, our region faces some of Australia’s highest insurance premiums.
Rising policy premiums, excesses and various exclusions leave many homeowners dangerously underinsured, with coverage often falling short of the actual cost of rebuilding exacerbated by remoteness, labour shortages, freight costs and cyclone-resilient building standards.
This growing protection gap leaves families, businesses and ultimately taxpayers carrying the burden when disaster strikes.
And whilst we acknowledge the North's local leaders for recently forcing the Federal Government’s backdown on disaster funding reforms, alongside those in Ingham and Townsville who fought like tigers to secure the cyclone reinsurance pool for North Queenslanders and bring a number of leading insurers to the table – there remains much work to do.
The reinsurance pool should cover all events associated with tropical cyclone systems - including flooding; stronger emergency services and essential infrastructure preparedness; improved support from major businesses and banks following disasters; and better coordinated, adequately funded disaster recovery assistance.
And so we will continue to make the strongest representations at the highest possible levels of government, working alongside our local councils to ensure North Queensland's vulnerabilities are properly recognised.
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