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Wednesday, May 20, 2015
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May 27 & 28 - Mareeba Rodeo Grounds
2015 OFFICIAL GUIDE OUT NOW!
May 27 & 28, 2015
MAREEBA RODEO
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MAY 29-30
2015
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Bad Boys set new race record A team of young school boys from Mareeba have set a new race record of 6 hours, 25 minutes and 44 seconds, in the 2015 Great Wheelbarrow Race that ended on Sunday, May 17. Turn to pages 4 and 5 for more on the great race. The Bad Boys: Nicholas Turner, Jackson Brown, Dylan Brown, Omar Mytreza, Zach Adams, Quangee Truong, Truong Truong, Jonathan Myer, Josh Musumeci, Ricaydon wason. Absent: Team coach Ben Herbert and Bus driver Carl Brown. Photo by Peter Roy.
The good, the bad and the ugly ... our local leaders dissect the budget By Justin Fris
Q
UEENSLAND’S political heavyweights have had their say on last Tuesday’s federal budget handed down by Treasurer, Joe Hockey. Some of the critique was complimentary; others would have had Liberal Party officials scampering for the bunker. Only a year out from the election, Mr Hockey delivered his speech with one clear eye on next year’s date with the ballot box. This consensus was notably picked up by Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter, who had mixed feelings on the final product. “There are very serious opportunities in this
budget with the announcement of a $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility that will be available for major infrastructure projects like ports, railways, pipelines and electricity generation,” he said. “This will provide real possibilities for the Hughenden Water Development Project, the Reverse Tully Mill-Stream near Ravenshoe, the Upper Mitchell River near Mareeba and the Upper Burdekin Irrigation scheme (UBurIS). “But the Government has only committed to $1 million in funding in this financial year and I’m mindful that next year is an election year.” Mr Katter outlined his view on specific issues close to his heart, along with the Kennedy electorate, which were either included or skipped by
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the Abbott Government. Cautiously welcoming funding toward the ‘Beef Roads’ project, Mr Katter said farmers needed greater support federally. “Improving roads to develop the cattle industry might have a short term benefit, but very shortly there aren’t going to be any cattle to put on the roads. And I have to question whether this is money that would have been allocated for roads anyway, just being re-dressed,” he said. “A combination of drought and the refusal of Government to give money via a Reconstruction Board means that cattle numbers are dropping dramatically. “The Government keeps coming out with Propaganda Placebos – all of these little handouts
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to the cattle industry are just that; Propaganda Placebos – none of them are going to save the base industry. “The things that we desperately need, like an ethanol industry to give us distiller’s grain for feed, interest rates in line with the rest of the world and to bring the dollar down to where it should be (at 40 cents) are sadly lacking. “Preaching to us about free market and competition where as a result of Government policy two supermarkets have 90 percent of the market and cattle farmers have only two companies to sell beef to; that’s the hypocrisy of the Propaganda Placebos.”
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