Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, over 25,000 square kilometres in north-west Queensland, Australia's cattle heartland, is now overrun by the prickly acacia weed tree. In contrast, buffel grass now covers vast tracts of what were once barren wastelands. Buffel is restoring riverbanks and deepening streams, many of which are now flowing again. Wouldn't you agree, then, with prominent Queenslander and AgForce president Shane McCarthy, a fifth-generation farmer, that only a government official cloistered in the Canberra kindergarten could ban buffel grass? For heaven's sake, Minister, will you put a stop to this urgently, otherwise won't you preside over a seven per cent drop in Australia's fifth-largest export industry, beef?

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