Bob Katter Is Coming For Queensland’s Crocs

Watch out natural world, Bob Katter is coming. This week his Australian Party put forward their Safer Waterways private member’s bill in Queensland parliament, which would allow for the culling and hunting of crocodiles, harvesting of eggs, and hunting safaris run by Indigenous communities.

The party argues these changes are a needed response to the surge in the crocodile population since the state gave them protection in the 70s. A surge that’s clearly cramping their style. MP Shane Knuth explained the thinking: “We can’t ski out in our favourite skiing places and the rowing clubs have dropped in numbers because they get out and row, they’re lucky to come back alive.”

While the party is clearly inconvenienced by the impact the protected species is having on the rowing community, experts have taken issue with the thinking. Speaking to The Guardian, zoologist and crocodile expert Dr Adam Britton pointed out that the solution isn’t so easy: “The only way to make it safe … to stop crocodile attacks is to remove every croc. You wouldn’t want to be the politician who said, ‘It’s safe, go swimming guys’.”

Britton added that the best way to prevent attacks is to educate people on awareness strategies and remove individual problem crocs. He also noted that things aren’t as dire as people would have you believe: “The number of crocodile attacks over time has increased very gradually [from an attack each year to about 1.4 attacks a year] … but there are also a lot more people, so naturally the [number of] interactions between people and crocodiles have been greater.”

Katter’s war on crocs isn’t a passing interest—his Twitter profile pic is literally a cartoon of him stomping on one. The bill is actually a revived proposal of one that lapsed last year. This fresh enthusiasm comes after a Cairns cane farmer was fined $500 for killing a three-metre crocodile on his property. The fine was actually pretty light, considering the maximum penalty for killing a protected animal in Queensland is $28,383.

Last year, Katter infamously declared, “Every three months a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in north Queensland.” The comment was a actually a response to a question about the equal marriage plebiscite. After replying, “You know, people are entitled to their sexual proclivities. Let there be a thousand blossoms bloom, as far as I am concerned,” things took a wonky turn. He continued, “But I ain’t spending any time on it because in the meantime, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in north Queensland.”

ABC’s Fact Check were quick to step in and set things straight, declaring there was “no evidence to support the claim”. They quoted figures from Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection that reported a “rate of one fatal crocodile attack every three years from 1985 to now.” Hopefully that will help you sleep—or row—a little easier this weekend.