I travelled to Keswick Island off the coast of Mackay for Australia Day this year. While I was there I had the chance to talk to a group of local residents who are having major issues with the new owner of the head lease on the island, China Bloom. Locals allege that the developer has restricted access to the island’s airstrip and are not following the terms of use for the boat ramp.
Tourism has been decimated and it looks like the developers just want an island to use exclusively for Chinese tourism. It’s unbelievable that a foreign interest might be getting away with this right on our doorstep. China Bloom gets away with it only because the state government is not doing it’s damn job.
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript has been generated automatically, may contain Errors and Omissions, and is made available on the basis that the reader accepts this.
Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts. And I’m back in Mackay, after an enthralling day at Keswick Island listening to people over there. The residents have some shocking stories. It really is a microcosm of the whole of our country. Now we made a video with a group of them together and they really tell us some startling facts about what’s going on under Chinese ownership of Keswick Island. This is Australia and today’s Australia day. It’s hard to believe that this is happening, but this as I said, is a summary of what’s happening around Australia, under state and federal governments. Now the video starts a bit slowly because people are a little bit nervous but you should listen and please do, to what they start discussing. It’s amazing, what’s happening in our country, right here in Australia. Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts and I’m in Keswick Island with some of the residents of Keswick Island. And we’ve come over here to learn and to listen. And who better to hear it from, than the people themselves? Who’s going to tell us the background to what’s going on? James, Craig?
Well
Give us a bit of a history please, James.
Okay. The… I’ve owned a property here since 2003, 2004. I actually have a second property here. We built a house here with my brother, so we share it. And we’ve been here for the last 17 years, living on the island. Look, every head lessee has had their difficulties. But we have found that since China Bloom has taken over, everything’s really gone to pot. They’re really trying to force us off the island. The, the, the attitude towards all the residents has been very quiet at best. We’ve been told that we have to fill in forms to even come to our own residence on the island.
Forms?
You had to fill in a form and give them 24 hours notice to come to the island. And you have to tell every person, you have to fill out a form and tell everybody who is coming with you. You have to fill in the form to come to your own house.
Do they not know this is Australia?
Well, that’s what… I actually wrote to them And after telling them that I wouldn’t be doing it I will say, I informed them that it was extremely un-Australian to be asking something like this. They persisted with it, even two weeks ago we received another letter saying you guys are not doing what we’ve instructed you to do. And you’ve got to fill in forms. I just am ignoring all…
Is there any condition in the lease under which you signed in the first place? So you’re all lessees, right?
That’s correct.
Okay. And then what happened? When did China Bloom take over?
China Bloom took over in, around about 2019.
May?
May, June. I actually was overseas at the time, travelling and I got an email informing me that we weren’t allowed to Airbnb anymore.
So you had been running an Airbnb?
We’d been running an Airbnb, we had the reviews, as you can see this place is outstanding. I’d been, from all over the world, just saying what a beautiful place it was. You know, beautiful, we still got the reviews, you know from America, obviously a lot from Australia just saying how wonderful it was.
It is wonderful.
We had, we had, a whole lot of bookings going forward and they’ve said… they gave us seven days to block everybody coming to the island on our Airbnb. I wrote them a very polite letter saying, “Look, I’m overseas, I’m not going to argue with you about whether you’re right or wrong not allowing us to run an Airbnb. However, I have these, all of these bookings going through December, may I please use them?” And they came back and said no. At that point, I did write them a fairly terse letter saying again, I didn’t think this was very Australian and I didn’t think they actually had very much moral or sentimental value for people that have arranged and booked their holidays to come here and ask, I had to give them seven days notice to cancel.
Well, just down on the beach and driving up here with Tim I heard some pretty shocking stories. You wouldn’t believe we’re in Australia. So what are some of the restrictions they’ve put on, on people here? Capriciously?
Well, restrictions of having to fill in a form to come here. Not allowed to use the, the boat ramp anymore which we’ve been using for the last 12 years.
So that’s the way you get supplies in?
Correct. Not allowed to fly in anymore. Again, they put out a statement to say that the aerodrome’s open. Well, you would have maybe seen it today. There’s a big cross on the aerodrome and there’s an excavator on it. So I’m not too sure how they expect a plane to land on an open aerodrome with an excavator parked on the runway.
Yeah, it would be difficult.
If it is…
Unless you had a helicopter, which they have.
So they had been coming in by helicopter, and it costs $1,300, one way flight. So a round trip’s, $2,600. But again, that hasn’t happened for the last month or so. Their helicopter’s not even coming in.
And you’ve got a pilot on this, on this island?
We’ve got three, right?
Yes, we’ve got three pilots.
Craig, Reno, me.
How many times have you landed here?
Uh, 1,305 times.
1,305 times he’s landed on here.
Without incident, and the day they took over I was given 12 hours to get my plane off the island.
So there’s nothing unsafe about the airfield?
Not at all. It’s not an easy airstrip. But I maintain, if you can’t land on that airstrip you shouldn’t be flying.
How many accidents on the airstrip?
There’s been one accident, by commercial, young commercial pilot back in…
2007.
2007.
And there was an incident about fuel or something I read from a media release?
Yes. They gave me this 12 hours, no reason given at the time of why I couldn’t fly here And we, we, we come in from Mackay, we had businesses back then. And so yes… So the incident was my plane was parked right down next to the residence, the manager’s residence, and my fuel tanks were drained.
Drained?
Drained. Totally dry.
And from what I read in the media release, you got the guns or drains, checked and…
I obviously couldn’t fly, so I jumped in the boat, with some jerry cans, went to Mackay got some av gas, came back put it in the plane, flew to Mackay, flew straight to the engineers and asked them to remove my valves and put new ones in, and check them to see if there was anything wrong with them. And they said, “Nah. There’s nothing wrong with the old ones.”
So they were drained?
They were drained. Yep.
And right next to the manager’s house, for China Bloom?
Yeah, interestingly enough, yeah.
What about the, this then I’ve grilled some academics about the reef regulations that the government of the state has put in. And there’s nothing to base those reef regulations on. And those reef regulations are destroying farming and communities on the mainland. But over here, you have instances of environmental vandalism, environmental breaches of the law, and you reported them to the state government and nothing’s happened. And you have the submission for how many, how many breaches?
I’m not sure how many branches are in there, but there’s a lot.
Probably…20?
Yep
20 breaches, so to be clear here the government, the Queensland government, keeps saying it’s not a dispute with them. So let’s be very clear here. You have the Queensland government, and a lease agreement between them and the head lease. That’s an agreement, like any agreement, when you go and buy a company or buy a car there’s an agreement with a whole lot of clauses in there. These are all the clauses that they are not adhering to. And that’s why we’re approaching the government, to say, you’re not adhering to these clauses. However the government keeps saying, “No, this is a dispute between the head lessee and the sub-lessee.” We don’t have a dispute there. There’s a dispute between, what the government should be governing. And-
So the key issue is one of governance between the lease holder, who is breaking the law and breaking their lease conditions, and nothing happening about it?
Correct.
Is that right?
Yes.
And the big question, Malcolm, is why? Why? Why are they not doing anything?
Why is the government not doing anything?
If that was done on the mainland, in Australia, there would be major, major consequences. But why are they not addressing it? That’s what we wanna know.
Just to cut it down into very simple language, The very first, the very, very first condition of that head lease says this island must be used for aerodrome, marine, tourism and residential purposes. The second sentence of that head lease says, if it is not used for those purposes, the head lease must be rescinded.
Wow.
And nothing’s happening.
Let’s just see. Are they using your aerodrome? No, they’re not. Are they using marine purposes? No, they’re not. Are they using for tourism purposes? No, definitely not.
They’re stifling them.
Stopping the Airbnb. Yeah.
And are they using for residential? Well, they’re doing their best to try us all.
And business too.
Do you want to say something either?
And business was in the…
You can’t run a business..
What do you mean Brian?
Because they say you’re in breach of the lease. You cannot have a business on this island. I had a business for 12 years. I started, we started from scratch. I had partners-
What was the business?
Clearing blocks of land, which they’re now doing through their own means. They have like four guys who used to come here and clear blocks of land.
I used to do that by myself. For a number of years.
So-
When China Bloom took over, I already had previous head lessees, two of them, Vince Alexander and KDPL, who gave me permission to run my business. China Bloom didn’t give me permission to run my business, they just forced me to stop it.
Without consultation?
And now all that work is generated through and his wi- his girlfriend, Sandy through training, who now provide the labour through her company. So he’s making the money I used to get.
So there’s a conflict of interest, I think there.
So they’re telling you who you can use or can’t use for tidying your yard and maintenance?
We can’t hire Brian to clear our…
Brian probably did my block for 10 years.
Yeah.
And it’s not easy to get contractors from the mainland.
No.
$1,300 a flight.
We used to fly contractors, for example pest control in our houses. They’d fly in the morning, do a couple of houses and fly back in the afternoon and it was affordable, you shared the cost. Now you can’t fly them in, so what options do you have?
So it’s very hard, just to even maintain your land?
Correct.
And there are some stunning locations here, fabulous views.
[Tim] Could I just jump in about the helicopters and getting over to the island?
Come and speak into the microphone please, Tim.
[Tim] Well, I’m just gonna prompt you and then you can ask, just getting the number to book the helicopter, you can’t find it anywhere. I was just, I was talking about that…
So, the sole means-
[Tim] I was gonna ask you guys for the number, cause I couldn’t find it anywhere.
So the sole means of aviation access now is helicopter, and Tim was telling me, he couldn’t get the number to get the helicopter booked.
I’ve contacted this twice by email from the website, never answered me. Not once.
You see, and what’s happened with this, this, this manager that’s running the island now, he’s ended up because he thinks he’s king of the castle, he has friendships, so people that are nice to him, He will, he will allow them to come through on a helicopter but anyone he doesn’t like, he just won’t return the call.
So it costs you a lot more to get the same services done.
Or, if
If you, if you can get them.
Yeah.
It’s unaffordable for, you know, flights every time, it’s unaffordable to pay $1,300 to go, do your shopping and another $1,300 to come back.
People even ask for back flights, you know when the helicopter’s been here, they say can we get a flight back over, for a medical emergency, not emergency, but medical. No.
Yeah, we were told that there were some seats available on the helicopters for about a hundred dollars
But only for friends.
Only for friends.
But not for residents.
So they’re trying to throw you off the island, by the look of it. They’re trying to restrict what you can do. They’re also interfering with you socially. Tim was telling me about the Christmas tree, that’s been decorated by the kids here for the last 12 years. I think, Tim was it? 12 years?
Decorated by…
Kids at heart!
Kids at heart, okay. And who chopped the tree down?
Well, the workers that were here. They were instructed to do that, they said they didn’t want to
They told you they didn’t want to cut it down but they were told to.
It was, look, it was a small tree, but a huge principle. So that was just to get, to get to us. That’s the only reason they did it.
And then they cut that huge Mackay cedar down.
Yeah and they cut that…
You know the reason.
They did say it was because it was spraying out of the bank but-
There’s one on the end of the island doing the same thing.
But don’t they understand that, if you’ve got a tree that holds it together, I mean, halfway down the hill you can see where there are no trees, you’ve got a huge landslide.
Well, speaking of trees and the environment, this, I saw something, in your media release about the turtles as well. What’s going on there?
It’s been bloody ridiculous.
Yeah. It’s interesting that-
Cole?
Yeah
It’s interesting that the Christmas tree was chopped down, so, you know they’ve basically shown us their environmental credentials, or their lack of, We’ve got a thousand year old cycad here on the island, so that was planted or that grew, when the Leaning Tower of Pisa was being built, built and that can- a thousand years ago. So, you know, if they don’t look after the local environment whether it’s on land or in, on the reef how are they going to be trusted to look after a thousand year old cycad?
Right. And you’ve made, in your submission to the state government, you’ve made comments about their environmental vandalism or environmental destruction. Can you tell us about some of them? Because that’s, what Cole’s touching on.
Yeah. Well the main one that sort of kicked it all off was the grounding of the beach. So, you know, we, we witnessed a big tele handler on the beach.
A tele handler is a…
It’s a big, grabber type-
Like a grave digger
Like an earth moving..
Earth moving, okay.
Earth moving equipment. And, yeah they basically took all the dune structure and they flattened it. So from the tree line all the way down to the beach was just a nice, gentle slope.
They pushed all the sand up to the bank
I have no idea what the purpose is.
What the motivation was.
I think maybe it’s to get hours up on the tele handler But in doing that, you know, up near the beach hut there there’s information about, you know these precious dune creatures that live there and don’t destroy their habitat, and you know, look after the turtles, it’s a turtle nesting habitat,
So there’s signs saying-
Yes, there’s signs all over… There’s three different signs advising people about all this, you know, all the stuff that happens in the dune. And they go and they spread it all out evenly, just before turtle mating season. So a couple of years ago, we would have, we’ve witnessed turtle tracks coming up the beach, where turtle have tried to lay a nest, but of course there was no dunes, So of course the next high tide just washed straight over the top of it. Yeah. This has been going on for some years now.
And there’s been sightings of turtles, too.
Oh, lots.
And one, one was obviously, big, heavy and tired and had obviously laid some eggs.
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so that was so we were, we reported that. I think Karen reported it.
Well, I put a submission together, with three affidavits of people who saw the tele handler, and saw the turtle nest and the inundation. And photos. And I say these are location, time and date stamped photos. And I submitted it to the, Ian Hutchinson.
Who’s he?
He was the chief whip, Ian Hutchins, he’s the chief whip for Annastacia Palaszczuk,
So he’s a Labour party MP?
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
I submitted it to the Department of Environmental Science and I submitted it to GBRMPA.
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
Yeah.
And can I just add there, it was Ian Hutchins requested James to do that.
He did request me to do it.
So they know about it, requested details, given them details, nothing’s happened.
And then he came back and said “I can’t deal with”, something quite strange happened, and he just said, “I can’t deal with this, you gotta deal with the problem”…
I think he’s, he’s, Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Chief of Staff.
He was. But he’s not an MP.
He’s not an MP, so he’s not at liberty…
He was the Chief of Staff.
He’s a bureaucrat.
He’s a bureaucrat.
But, after six months, they, the Department of Environment Science came up, walked up along the beach, and said they can’t see any evidence of turtles or turtle nesting, so therefore it never happened.
Well, it’s basically, six months is in June, in June turtles don’t nest in June. They actually nest in December, I can’t imagine, at a government institution, whose task is to look after our Great Barrier Reef, and they do that.
So this was at GBRMPA, they did this?
This was the Department of Environmental Science.
And what about what was, the GBRMPA’s? The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s?
They’ve just kept very quiet.
Did they respond to you?
No.
Apparently their jurisdiction is below the low water mark, and Mackay regional council is above the high water mark. And who knows who’s in between?
Well, how has the council been on this issue?
Extremely poor, I think-
They think that it shouldn’t be them, it should be somebody else.
So everyone’s going, them
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We’ve had, actually had, six meetings with the council over the last few years-
And nothing?
Well, they did come out here a couple months ago because there was a lot of things that were being built without permits, without engineering and that, which is their department. They did address that, to what degree we’re not really sure. But we are disappointed with their…
So the GBRMPA, is a federal agency I think, so they’ve not done anything that you’re aware of?
No.
They certainly haven’t got back to you. The state Premier’s department, the state Environmental department, the State agencies have not done anything about it, and the local council hasn’t done anything about it.
Correct.
So you’re stuck on your own facing these people.
Yeah.
We’ve written to the new Resources Minister, Scott Stewart through the member for Mackay-
How long ago?
Julieanne Gilbert. Um, just after Christmas requesting a meeting with the new minister, to try and clarify some of these issues. Now, you know, a new minister coming into a portfolio, Sure, he’s going to be a little bit in the dark. So wouldn’t you think it would be wise for him to say, “Okay, I’ve heard China Bloom’s version of this, Surely I should go and hear what residents have to say.” Now, there has been no response whatsoever from the minister’s office or from Julianne Gilbert’s office, to our request for a meeting. And I sent that letter away, Not only as a member of the Keswick Island Progress Association, but as an island resident. So that’s where it’s disappointing.
And so, Julianne, Gilbert, the member for Mackay, she’s responsible for this area?
No she’s not.
She’s actually not.
Who is your rep?
It’s, it’s actually a weird situation, because Mackay regional council are responsible for the building, environmental things on the island, but the actual rep is Whitsundays.
So that’s, uh,
What’s her name?
Amanda Camm.
Amanda Camm, yeah.
Has she done anything about it?
Unfortunately not.
She did-
She stood up in Parliament I think in December, and read out a letter but we haven’t heard anything.
She was very active in helping us initially but we haven’t-
That was before the election?
Yeah.
Yeah, before the election.
I haven’t heard much from her at all
Since the election, no?
Nothing.
No.
Realistically, all we need is maybe 3 or 4 key groups to get together around the table. We need China Bloom, we need the residents, we need the government and possibly our local member or council to sit around a table and say, ” These are our five or six main issues. How can we resolve them?” But there’s been no appetite for that whatsoever.
Okay. Tell me something more about the boat ramp that was built down there. The previous boat ramp that was denied access to and I read somewhere, I think, in your media release that this new boat ramp, which is pretty small was built, you think without approval?
That we know.
You know that?
There was no engineering, there was no permits, no environmental study,
No environmental study.
And this is actually all in the head lease, this is what they say they should be doing,
That the Queensland government should be enforcing?
Yes.
Yep.
So none of that was done. They built the first road basically on the high water mark or just below, I can take you down and show you, they threw tyres in there, they threw top soil from another illegal road in there, and it’s all just washed into the sea, you can see the tyres sitting half-
And now, on the-
Can you imagine if I even just left a single tyre on the beach in Mackay.
And you can’t use single use plastic bags anymore.
Correct.
We’re paying for them.
Yeah.
But yet they’re letting-
I can take you down there and show you-
off the road and get into the ocean.
There was a spring tide two days after they did that. And within two days it was half gone into the reef. And James has done a fantastic video, underwater showing the silk on the coral and how the cull around that area.
It’s absolutely devastated.
It’s devastated.
I think the other important thing to note is that the Department of Resources through one of their key bureaucrats, they’ve actually identified that the so-called new boat ramp is not fit for purpose.
Exactly right.
Can I just… Can I just backtrack a bit, when, a couple of head lessees ago, probably around 2008 or so, one of the head lessees approached the Queensland state government, and said he couldn’t afford to build the marina, and
So was the lease, part of the condition was building a marina?
Was you have to build a marina.
Where’s the marina?
Precisely. So he couldn’t do that. So they came to an agreement with him that he would provide a public boat ramp and a public jetty, both free of charge for the public to use. And the barge ramp, the so-called barge ramp, was the public boat ramp that was built. And it was properly engineered, and everything was done correctly through the council. And that was the ramp that was given to us to use. And at the same time, they built, they did build a jetty at that point, it wasn’t properly maintained.
And that’s the one with the two black…
Yeah.
This is the, the actual walkway has been taken back, hasn’t it?
Correct.
So it’s unusable?
Yeah, there’s-
We’re not allowed to go there.
Yeah. They’ve cut that off for us.
So then, then, when China Bloom came along, they made the airstrip an exclusion zone and they said your free, your free public boat ramp, you may not access that anymore. And now suddenly it’s become only a barge ramp, and not designed as a boat ramp. And we’ll just build you another one, but it literally took them two months to build that other one. And it just-
Totally illegal. Everything’s illegal.
Yeah, a backdoor job.
So, tell me about the national park. How much of the Island is, is leased by China Bloom? How much is national park? How much is freehold?
It’s 15%, is…
20%…
85% national park, and I’ve read that their access to the national park has been restricted, and that’s illegal, isn’t it?
That’s what I keep saying to the DNR, it is illegal. Actually it says so in the lease again, it says in the lease it refers to Clause 373, et cetera,
Th, three-
3.3?
3. 43, it says refer to this deed of agreement. And in that deed of agreement, it clearly states access to certain areas of national park. And we brought this up with the DNR and they said, “Oh it’s not part of our head lease agreement.” And we said, show us the head lease agreement. And they said, “Oh, but it doesn’t clearly state that we have to adhere to that.”
What?!
Yeah, I mean-
When you sign an agreement, there has to be a clause in there that says you must agree to it, before you-
Why put the clause in?
I know, it’s ridiculous.
Yeah.
So China Bloom also claim, and this is in your media release, the majority of them, being you guys, are in breach of their leases. And you’ve said that that is not the case. Do you want to expand on that so that people can hear?
Well, I think what that’s referring to is the people that haven’t built their houses just yet.
And one of them being Glenn Leigh-Smith.
One being Glenn Leigh-Smith, who just, yeah, he just put out a recent, pro media for China Bloom.
But he is in their pocket.
Never built on his house. But he works for them, so.
Okay.
Sorry for that.
What about, what about the, no, if it’s fact you don’t have to apologise. What about the, the people who’ve been trying to sell their houses? Well, first of all, what’s happened to the value of the properties here now, since China Bloom’s taken over and done these behaviours, and second, secondly, what is happening to the properties that you’re trying to sell? Some, some people are trying to sell?
Well our property values have gone down, this house here has gone down about probably, 75%.
Yeah, 75, 80%, I heard.
Decrease?
About 20% of what it was worth.
So just to give you an example, properties, I picked up a real, dead bargain on the property at 137,000. So they ranged between about 130,000 and 450,000 for the property, blank property.
Yep.
Some of the lessees are handing them back, at this stage.
And there’s someone trying to sell, I think and someone trying to buy his property, but they can’t settle?
Well, Lee is in that position. He’s-
Will you tell us about that?
Well, well, we went to contract-
Speak up a bit, there’s a microphone.
We went to contract on a property about six months ago and it has to go to the minister’s office, to be signed off on, which went through no problem. Went to China Bloom to be signed off, nothing. Then next thing you know, our solicitor gets a big list saying that we want this done, and we want a hundred thousand dollar security bond to make sure that you fix the solar power, a couple of minor things which would be nowhere near a hundred thousand anyway, but they don’t want to sign off. And we’re the second people, there’s more people that are trying to do the same thing. And China Bloom just will not sign the contracts, yet in the lease agreement it states that they will not impede, they are not to impede on the sale of a property.
Right. There’s a break in the lease agreement again.
Yeah.
Also, in your media release it says China Bloom claims that, it describes the residents and sub-leasers as anti-development. You’ve put up a counter to that, what is the reality? Are you anti-development?
No. I can see that.
We don’t want to lose money.
Not in the least. You know, many of their statements, if not all of them were absolutely, at best, I would say factually incorrect. I don’t want to use the L-word, but that’s how I would say that.
How can they say there’s no turtles on the island?
Well, it strikes-
I can say there’s no aerodromes, even though the aerodromes been up for four years.
It strikes me, James, as either they’re extremely incompetent or they’re lying.
Well, that’s the way I would say it.
That’s my interpretation.
It might strike me in the same way.
That’s my conclusion.
What we are anti, is anti-development that hasn’t been approved, and properly engineered and designed, because that just ends up as a disaster.
Well, I don’t think we want development at any cost. We want a sustainable island that people can live in harmony. And it’s not just residents. It’s for, it’s for all Queenslanders.
How many of you people-
It’s for all Australians.
How many of you people are here to make a quick buck? Or how many people are here to stay and enjoy yourself for a long time? That’s what comes through very, very clearly.
And in turn Malcolm, when we first all bought our land here, the future development at that stage was fantastic, wasn’t it? Peter Marshall, the original head lessee, had a fantastic… it was an eco type development. And, and that’s what we bought into. And it’s never arrived. Unfortunately, Peter couldn’t hold on to the head lease, he had other issues that need… and it was taken off him by the bank, but he, he had a fantastic vision and it’s just, it’s a shame that the next three head lessees, which the government, state government chose, have not worked out.
But the only development on this island, all the houses, were built during Vince Alexander’s time, there was nothing proposed while KDPL were here, and there’s been nothing since China Bloom took over.
Okay.
I think, you know, you as a Senator in the Australian government, I think this is an opportunity for you too, to have a look at the original sale to China Bloom. Now, who is China Bloom? Is China… What entity does China Bloom have? What resources, what, what equity do they have in China Bloom? Is it just a shelf company? Is it a $2 company in Hong Kong? You know, we’ve asked, we’ve tried to find this information but you know you as senator, and George Christensen as our local member, I would say that you would had the better chance than us to determine…
That’s actually, a property title and so on, That’s actually a state government responsibility, but I’ll see what my office can do anyway.
I think that there should be an overview of just what’s happening all around us here. And, it’s cause it’s affecting Australia.
Right.
You look at all the islands that have been sold to Chinese around here. I think there’s 6, no…
5, I think, yeah.
5.
What are they?
St. Bees, Tengolan, Lindeman, South Molle, Daydream Island.
And another big one that people don’t think of is Laguna Quays, on the mainland. It’s a big property, there’s a big resort, marina, and there’s a, it’s an unfinished three kilometre airstrip on there.
That’s the key is that, Laguna Quays, think of it this way, is Laguna Quays is very key, it’s a three kilometre. We measured it the other day, three kilometre landing strip which can land international jets. They have a huge harbour there, that’s beautifully developed. And coming from overseas, you just land there. You don’t even have to visit anywhere in Australia. You go straight from the Laguna Quays to, to the harbour of, to all these different islands.
So let’s… it’s getting close to wrap up time. So, China Bloom accuses some of the residents of building non-compliant illegal structures but in response, you said the only non-compliant and illegal structures have been built by the island manager themselves. And you’ve pointed at two specific examples, the temporary illegal boat ramp and the manager’s new double story residence.
Built without approval, structure.
Yeah.
I mean, if you did that in Mackay, the council would make you pull it down.
And we don’t know about those toilets they’ve put in at the shop either.
So we go back to that original question, why is the government not doing something about it? Why? We’d like to know why this has just been pushed under the rug.
This has got atrocious governance and loss of sovereignty stamped all over it.
Governance, the government and this state has got so many things to address. You’re saying, I’ll just quote it here: “It is our position, that number one, the head lessee must use the leased land for commercial business purposes, being tourism, residential, marine facility marine works, and aerodome purposes. And then number two, this lease may be forfeited if not used for the purpose stated above.” Let’s finish by saying, what do you want?
Them to forfeit the lease.
Yeah.
Yep.
They’re not doing their job. And it’s as simple as that.
And get a head lessee who has some interest in actually doing something…
And that’s actually touching on another point, we have three Australian investors who were shut out of this latest purchase.
Shut out.
Shut out, and they were told, two of those people have told me personally.
So Australian investors were shut out in favour of a Chinese investor
Yes.
Who is not fulfilling the, these conditions.
Correct.
Yes.
And nothing’s being done about it.
Nothing.
And that raises huge questions. That’s exactly what we’re asking. What assets do these people have, to develop this island? If it’s a, it’s a shelf company sitting in Hong Kong, where are they getting their money from? Are they getting it from within China? Are they getting it from the Chinese government? Are they getting it from the communist party?
We need some serious investigative reporting done on this. We need some digging to find out what’s behind it all.
What we wanna know, Annastacia Palaszczuk, what is she hiding from us? You know?
Okay.
Just briefly, that’s true, why doesn’t the state government meet with us, face to face?
Tell the camera. So we’ve met with them… Why doesn’t the state government why doesn’t the minister meet with us and, and go through the issues that we’ve raised? What are they scared of?
And I’ll just finish up by saying that, no one’s raised this with me, but I want to make it very clear. None of these people are endorsing me or One Nation. They’re just independent citizens. Correct? I wanna make that very clear, we’re not here to do this politically, but I am in the sense that I’m very disappointed in the state government because it’s clearly dropped the ball. Can I just say one other thing is that, so what is the motive behind all this? I would suggest that the motive behind it is to force us off the island buy our properties that are up at a basement price, and then we’ll take, whatever, or then bring in Chinese people. In China, there’s 372 billionaires. There’s 4.4 millionaires.
Yeah.
Unbelievable. You know, like this is, you know, we don’t have that wealth.
But that, that reminds me, some of you people are here as a result of your superannuation investments, right? Is that correct?
Yep. Correct.
So that’s been destroyed.
Yeah Absolutely. And this…
This is just basic human living.
This is, as James said, and Craig said earlier, at the start of this video, this is happening right around the country. This is not just a Keswick Island issue, this is a Queensland issue and an Australian issue.
It’s probably a global issue.
Maybe if you look around you, look what’s happening in China at the moment with Vietnam. They’re building walls between China and Vietnam. So, are they building walls to keep people in or to keep people out.
I don’t know, but we need to make sure we have a political system that maintains our sovereignty and our government. And I want to thank you very much. Thank you for the host for your wonderful residence.
Yeah. Thank you for coming.
Yeah, I thank you for standing up and fighting. As I said, this is not political. It’s about sovereignty and Australia. And some people say, you know, I’m from the Southern tip of Africa and I shouldn’t be here, I’m more Australian than a lot of people, like these people down there at the runway.
We welcome anyone, any colour, any religion so long as they comply with our values, uphold our laws and fit in with our philosophy.
Absolutely.
I would just hope that your visit today led to you actually writing to the Queensland government on our behalf, asking the questions to Perth and the questions we’ve put. We’re not getting a response anywhere else.
George has helped us. George Christensen has helped us.
If it’s any reassurance, we’ve asked the Premier for, data behind some of their policies. She’s pointed us to two areas, no data. So these guys are just winging it, in my experience, the, we, we will, we have come here to listen, to try and understand, one of our staff who, who is a lawyer will be getting in touch with you.
We hope you can help us with our basic human rights.
Hope so.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
