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

The Silkwood Hotel in Far North Queensland was fined $1,600 because its decibel level was too high—the noise level in its pub. The hotel is a stone's throw from the clay pigeon shooting range across the road and a stone's throw from the Feast of the Three Saints, which is the biggest religious festival, maybe, in Australia. Over 3,000 people attend. Of course, Silkwood very famously was where the Fields of Fire television series was filmed.

But I note these petty attacks. There is no doubt that Queensland is one of the least free states on earth. I use my own family as an example. With the grandkids coming up, I thought: 'Beauty! We'll get out the air rifles and I'll set up the targets.' We have 10 acres outside of town. My wife said, 'No, kids under 15 are not allowed to go near a rifle.' 'What? Not a 70-year-old air rifle?' 'No.' 'Alright. We'll set up the flying fox—zoom, zoom, zoom and splash in the pool.' 'No, you've got to remove a panel to do that.' 'But they're not going to come out here and inspect it.' 'An inspector was out last week, and our fence is three centimetres lower than it should be, so we've got to find $3½ thousand to fix the fence up.' I said, 'Oh, well, we'll complete the treehouse.' 'No, a kid fell out of a treehouse two months ago in Brisbane, so treehouses are banned.' 'Well, we'll go down to the flat, boil a billy and make some tea and damper.' She said, 'No, you've got to get a permit for a fire in the open.'

This is one of the most restrictive societies on earth. Every day and every week in this place, we put out more restrictions and more restrictions and more restrictions. Who the hell do we think we are? Once upon a time, this was a very free country. One of the great things about being an Australian was the freedoms that we enjoyed. If I get a taipan snake in my house, I am not allowed to kill the snake. I'm not allowed to use a rifle to kill the snake. If my wife is being attacked with a knife, I'm not allowed to defend her or myself with a firearm. 'Oh, ring the police.' Well, the average downtime is about 70 minutes in Queensland. That's the average. My daughter had burglars in her apartment in Townsville, and the police turned up two weeks later. She rang them 16 times because the burglar was in there, and they could have caught him. So don't tell me about ringing up the police.

The most important principle outside of Christianity—'Love your neighbours and show responsibility to other people'—is the right of property, which was in the Magna Carta. On that little piece of land, I am the king, not the government. My family and I are the king.