• Robbie Katter and Shane Knuth have handed Labor more ammunition to punish rural Qld at the next electio
• KAP MPs support of compulsory preferential voting delivers Labor more green preferences and more power to introduce aggressive anti-farmer laws like vegetation management
• Power has ‘gone to KAPs heads’ and their wheeling and dealing with Labor has sold rural Qld out

Katter Party MPs, Robbie Katter and Shane Knuth, have handed Labor and the Greens the mechanism to rig the next state election and introduce policies that will punish rural Queensland, including their own electorates, the LNP said today.

Hinchinbrook MP and LNP Shadow Minister, Andrew Cripps, said he was flabbergasted when the two Katter Party MPs lined up with the Palaszczuk Government to introduce compulsory preferential voting (CPV) for Queensland elections.

“I was literally lost for words – I couldn’t believe Robbie Katter and Shane Knuth couldn’t think through the disastrous implications of delivering a strengthened relationship between Labor and the Greens at future state elections,” said Mr Cripps.

“We know Labor and the Greens do preference deals before state polls – Greens preferences in return for Labor policies like aggressive vegetation management laws and other anti-rural policies – to the detriment of regional Queensland.”

CPV means all Queensland voters will be forced to number every square, meaning Greens preferences will flow much more strongly to Labor, delivering them extra seats in return for more Green inspired policies – a complete nightmare for the bush.

“The Katter Party has had a brain explosion here – it’s clear to me that Shane Knuth and Robbie Katter didn’t understand what they were doing – they have been wheeling and dealing with Labor over the last 12 months and it’s gone to their heads.”

Mr Cripps said the Dalrymple and Mount Isa electorates would be in the firing line from future Labor Government’s with bigger majorities delivered by Green preferences implementing anti-agriculture, anti-mining and other anti-development policies.

“It’s clear that the Katter MP’s had no clue or no care that optional preferential voting was an critical part of Fitzgerald Inquiry backed reforms and implemented through the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission,” he said.

“Not only that, they didn’t even care that Labor was stripping away the rights of Queensland voters by forcing changes through State Parliament with absolutely no consultation and with only 18 minutes notice.”

Mr Cripps said the Katter Party needed to explain to regional Queenslanders why it had delivered Labor and the Greens a whip hand to punish them by abandoning the OPV system for state elections, which had been in place for 25 years

.Key Facts: 

• Optional preferential voting was a critical reform flowing out of the Fitzgerald inquiry and was scrapped by Qld Labor, with the support of KAP, in the last sitting of State Parliament.
• Queensland voters have had the right to vote only for their politician of choice taken away, and will now be forced to allocate preferences to parties they do not necessarily support.
• Optional preferential voting is used in Queensland and NSW state elections as well as local government elections.