Katter backs Turnbull to form government

Mr Katter spoke to media today after meeting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for talks in Brisbane, with vote counting continuing and the Coalition on 73 seats needing 76 to form a majority and six still undecided.

Mr Katter said there was no written agreement - but he would retain the right to change his mind on support, in assessing various issues.

He said he understood the ALP would be unable to form government and returning to an election “should not be imposed upon the Australian people”.

“Today we are announcing our support by supply and confidence for a Turnbull Government - I do so with no great enthusiasm,” he said.

“There are no guarantees, there's no quid pro quo, there is no written agreements here and there can't be.

“It's improper behaviour on his part and improper behaviour on my part, you know.

“I'm not selling my gun in.

“But what I want to know is if I give you that backing, what are the intentions of your government and I will decide what I'm going to do with my vote.

“I came away comfortable that there is very serious and real commitment.”

Mr Katter said by reserving his rights to change his mind, he did not want to damage relationships with Labor MPs like Anthony Albanese and Wayne Swan which “have yielded great benefits for Australia”.

He said in the last hung parliament in 2010 he used 20 points during the balance of power negotiations and Tony Abbott’s Coalition “got the most ticks, so we backed Abbott”.

But he supported Kevin Rudd on both supply and confidence after he toppled Julia Gillard in mid-2013 to become Prime Minister shortly before that election.

Mr Katter said he backed Mr Rudd “Because we were in a deep hole in the cattle industry and it necessitated me changing”.

“I will maintain my right to change at any point of time in the future,” he said.

“I maintain my right to move at any point in time in another direction.

Mr Turnbull said before meeting with Mr Katter that he remained confident of the Coalition forming government but was maintaining communications with crossbench members who may become critical in the event of balance of power talks.

Mr Katter said his decision to back Mr Turnbull without clarification on certain issues like building the Hell’s Gate dam on the upper Burdekin River that’s reportedly capable of boosting agriculture production by $2 billion per year.

“I'm happy in my own mind that we will have a determination to move forward and not to talk about it, but to actually build a dam and create 20,000 jobs into the future,” he said.

Mr Katter said there were numerous issues including a subject “very near and dear to my heart, my fellow first Australians” being allowed to own their own home or their own piece of land.

“We have clarification today that I can see no obstacles to us moving forward to be able to grant title deeds so that they can own land the same as everyone else on earth,” he said.

Mr Katter said Katter’s Australian Party also had very close affiliations with the trade union movement.

“If there is the slightest hint of union bashing and I can assure you all bets are off,” he said.

“We are here today to protect the right of people to collectively bargain, the employees of Australia and we will be maintaining our support for those trade unions as we have in the past.

“We also believe profoundly that whilst every employee in Australia should have the right to arbitration, so should the farmers.”

Mr Katter said his KAP members of the Queensland parliament had won rights to assist sugar cane farmers in dealing with market power imbalance, which he also wanted for the dairy industry.

“We are most anxious to get those same rights that every other Australian enjoys and now the sugar farmers enjoy, back for the dairy farmers,” he said.

“I'm fairly confident we can come to an agreement there as well.”

Asked what his bottom line negotiation item was, Mr Katter said “I'm not going to go into the 40 or 50 items that were discussed”.

Mr Katter said nothing was signed but the discussions with the PM were amicable and pleasant.

He said if he didn’t give an undertaking on confidence and supply, “I think we have a very bad situation in Australia which in all probability the Government would be forced back to the people”.

“There is no way in the world that I'm giving a rubber stamp - I think it's a great mistake,” he said.

“I don't want to be disrespectful to Tony Windsor or Rob Oakeshott but just to vote all the time with the Labor Party that will not be happening I can assure you.

“I've told Malcolm Turnbull very definitely we will be voting the way we think are in the interests of our people.

“And we will be voting very aggressively and we’ll maintain our right to take whatever stance, fierce stance that we need to take in the future as we have in the past.

“Remember, that I gave the undertaking to Abbott and later on….in that Parliament, I switched to Rudd.”

On foreign ownership, Mr Katter said, “We will be acting with aggression to stop further ownership of the assets of Australia”.

He said bringing-in foreign development capital was okay but “that is not what is happening”.

“The capital that is coming now is buying assets that we as a people in Australia have created and they are buying them, quite frankly, at bargain basement prices and because they have got the financial power and muscle to buy them,” he said.

Mr Katter said he and Mr Turnbull “discussed very aggressively today…to have other ways of ensuring that these assets stay in Australian hands”.

“I wouldn't say we reached clarification on some issues - there are some outstanding issues,” he said.

Mr Katter said he’d spoken to Independent SA Senator Nick Xenophon who will also have a Lower House seat and three Senators and expected to meet him later today or in near future.

“I’m not interested really very much in what the Prime Minister says or doesn't say on the backpacker tax,” he said.

“We will be tenaciously opposing the backpacker tax and I don't want to be speaking for Nick Xenophon but I would think there would be very strong feelings about the backpacker tax from that side of parliament as well.”

Mr Katter said the former hung parliament was not an unstable government until Julia Gillard decided to ban the live cattle trade to Indonesia.

“As far as I was concerned, she wrote her death warrant and I was going it stitch her and the government up at the first available opportunity,” he said.

“Well I did and I got rid of her, put Rudd in and a few weeks later we had the live cattle market reopened.

“That was $500 million extra going into North Queensland - almost all of that going into the Kennedy electorate.

“You know, if people think that they can trifle with little people like myself then well you better have a better look at my history.”

Mr Turnbull said he had very constructive discussions with Mr Katter and thanked him for the support given to his government in respect of supply and confidence.

“We have a lot of issues that we hold very dearly and hold in common,” he said.

“His values and objectives are in many respects very similar to those of the LNP, the Liberal Party, the National Party and we have a very common commitment to strong development particularly in Northern Australia and particularly with respect to water infrastructure.”

Mr Turnbull said the ongoing vote count was producing positive trends in a number of seats with a final result still to be determined.

“I remain confident that we will form a government and we will do so and will unite the parliament, so far as we are able to, unite the nation in a common purpose to continue to ensure that we have strong economic growth, we continue successfully to transition from the mining construction boom in a manner that is fair and offers opportunities, strong opportunities for these very exciting times which remain exciting,” he said.

“Perhaps in some respects exciting in different ways but nonetheless exciting - exciting times of great opportunity, of great challenge.”