Federal MP Bob Katter has made a bold claim against shark protection advocates after a spate of attacks on humans in Australian waters, saying “you are to blame”. The maverick politician has called for shark culling practices to be overhauled following a fatal attack off the coast of North Queensland last week.
Katter’s Strong Words
Speaking to Sky News Australia on Friday, Mr Katter did not mince his words as he addressed people who he said were “advocating that we look after sharks, and that the people get chewed to pieces”. “You are not completely human, in my opinion. That's the strongest condemnation that I can make,” he said. “If it was up to you, we'd be still eaten by the lions and tigers.”
The Queensland MP argued that “nature is out of balance” due to current shark management and blamed those against the “taking of sharks” for the predators' attacks on humans. “There are a lot of fishers out there now that are being attacked by those sharks. And you, you are to blame,” he said. “You are savages ... you have no value on human life, and you're in love with your own ideological superiority.”
Recent Fatal Attacks
His comments come after a 39-year-old man died on May 24 after being attacked by a shark at Kennedy Shoal reef off the coast of Tully Heads, about 160km south of Cairns. In a statement posted to social media that day, Mr Katter described the attack as “a completely unnecessary heartbreaking tragedy”. “Another North Queenslander is dead. Another family is shattered. And still the people sitting in cushy airconditioned offices in Brisbane and Canberra think they know better than the people who live and work in these waters,” he wrote.
“But every time we raise safer waterways, we are lectured by public servants and activists who have never spent five minutes in the water north of Mackay. When did human beings become less important than sharks? You cannot keep telling North Queenslanders to simply accept that people will be taken from our beaches, rivers and reefs while governments tie the hands of local communities from defending themselves.”
The 39-year-old's death came just one week after Steven Mattaboni, 38, died after being attacked by a great white shark near Rottnest Island in Western Australia. In January, 12-year-old Nico Antic died in hospital almost a week after being mauled by a shark while swimming in Sydney Harbour. Authorities at the time believed a bull shark was responsible for the attack. His death followed a series of shark incidents in waters off NSW, with three further attacks reported in the 48 hours after Nico was bitten.
Expert and Political Reactions
Environmental science expert Daryl McPhee in January dismissed the idea that policy changes could have altered the outcome of the spate of shark incidents. “The government has tools that it’s supposed to, and I think it’s probably deployed very well the tools that it has,” he told Sky News. Meanwhile, former prime minister Tony Abbott has long called for nets to be put in place to protect beachgoers in the state, saying he is on the side of people rather than sharks. “This didn’t happen because of the weather or the time of day, but because there are too many sharks. It’s way past time to reintroduce the shark fishery,” he wrote on Facebook earlier this year. In 2016, Mr Abbott demanded a fresh debate over commercial shark fishing and expanded netting across regional NSW.
