BACKGROUND
Brian George Littleproud (born 25 June 1941) is a former Australian politician whose father, George Littleproud served on the Chinchilla Shire Council.
Brian Littleproud was born in Chinchilla, Queensland, and was a teacher and 
farmer before becoming involved in politics. He was a National Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1983 to 2001, representing Condamine until 1992 and Western Downs thereafter. Elected during the Bjelke-Petersen National Party government, he was a backbencher until December 1987, when he became Minister for Education, Youth and Sport. Following Labor’s win at the 1989 state election, he remained on the National Party’s front bench and was Deputy Leader from 1991 to 1992. Following the Coalition’s return to government in 1995, he became Minister for Environment, serving until 1998 when Labor returned to office. Littleproud retired in 2001. [1] [2]
EARLY LIFE
His son, David Kelly Littleproud, was born on 4th September 1976 and grew up in Chinchilla.
He has always had an interest in politics as his father explained after the 2016 election, ‘ When asked whether he was destined to enter politics given his father’s political career, Mr Littleproud likened the situation to growing up on the land.
David Littleproud with his parents Brian and Peta
As a kid, David loved visiting his dad’s electorate office and doing little jobs – putting stamps on letters or folding papers. “He thought that was bloody Christmas,” the elder Littleproud said.
“You get it in your blood,” David said.
A keen young sportsman, David spent his early years growing up in Chinchilla and attending St Joseph’s, before continuing his education at Chinchilla State School and High School, before completing Years 11 and 12 at Toowoomba Grammar.
He first became interested in politics around the age of 7, when his father entered State Parliament. “I always remember when I got sworn into parliament, the two other kids (John and Odette), they didn’t want to go down. But he wasn’t going to miss it,” Brian recalled. [7]
EMPLOYMENT
In 1993, after he left school David was a Cotton Chipper for a year. Cotton chipping is an essential process in successfully farming cotton and other crops. It involves a gang of farm workers each walking up the rows between crops, chipping out weeds with a hoe. It can also involve removing unwanted cotton plants between the rows.
Littleproud was an agribusiness banker before entering politics. He spent 17 years with the National Australia Bank (NAB), including 12 years based in Warwick, Queensland, as district manager (agribusiness and commercial). He joined Suncorp in 2011 as executive manager (business and agribusiness banking) for South West Queensland.[1]
As of 2018 Littleproud (or perhaps it was his wife) was the owner of Mr Rental Southern Downs, a rent-to-buy business that employed four people. [1]
Interview with Sarah Littleproud of Mr Rental Southern Downs.
An Australian Franchisee Case Study
Franchisee: Sarah Littleproud
Territory: Southern Downs
Franchise: Mr Rental
Why did you go down the franchise route? And why did you choose Mr Rental?
I decided to go with a franchise so we could receive the support and knowledge we would not get if we started a business from scratch. Also a franchise provides the opportunity to utilise a pre-existing network of more experienced franchisees in the same industry.
I saw there was a definite need for a service offering in house hold rentals in the region and felt that Mr Rental was a leader in this market. It’s the support structure Mr Rental offered that was what we were after.
What did you do before taking up your Mr Rental franchise?
I was the Chief Financial Officer of Warwick Credit Union, Risk and Compliance Manager at Management Accounting. I have a strong background in business and finances.
On his electorate page, David records that ‘Over the past 20 years, I’ve owned a small business in Warwick and forged a career in agribusiness while living and working in towns such as Miles, Nanango, Charleville, St George, Stanthorpe and Warwick.‘ [8]
So has he claimed his wife’s business as being his own?
PERSONAL LIFE
One of three children, Littleproud also has three children.
He married in about 1999.
He and his wife Sarah announced their separation in 2019 following a 20-year marriage. It is possible that the separation occurred much closer to his intial election to parliament. It could be that that will be a successful defence against collusion claims with respect to the John Norman case.
FEUD WITH BOB KATTER
In December 2016 Bob Katter wrote an open letter to David Littleproud in which he called the newly elected Member a “stinking useless politician”, and his father, retired-state-member, Brian Littleproud a “backstabber”.
“The Member who represents the southern coal fields of Qld is advocating for no industrial representation or advocacy whatsoever,” Mr Katter said in the open letter. “He wouldn’t understand that the people working in the mines are the sons and daughters of farming families who work in mining as tradesmen, plant operators… and he wouldn’t understand that half the farmers in Qld are only there because of the higher wage that we enjoy in the mines and the only reason that we’ve got the jobs in the mines is because the CFMEU stood up to the Section 457 workers, (150,000 coming in one year alone).”
“This Member of Parliament’s father was one of the people who back-stabbed Bjelke-Petersen,” Mr Katter said. “There was the clever anti-Bjelke-Petersen brigade that dragged the Country Party down from 44 per cent to 14 per cent through their antics in Parliament.”
The Member for Kennedy also scorned “those Members of Parliament who enable big corporate mining companies to have conditions that lose 72 workers to death in the space of 20 minutes”, referencing the Mount Mulligan mine disaster of 1921.
Mr Katter’s attack against Mr Littleproud also incorporated the whole LNP who, along with the ALP were responsible for allowing coal seam gas exploration to turn the Great Artesian Aquifer and Queensland into “some sort of poisonous pin cushion”.
The Member for Maranoa issued a response to Mr Katter’s “open letter” this afternoon, stating, “bullying and name-calling is something Mr Katter and the CFMEU have in common and I refuse to lower myself to that standard.” [4]
Colin Bettles wrote in ‘farmonline’ on 4 Feb 2018 that ‘Apart from speaking out on some farm policy issues, like the negative impacts of water sharing arrangements in the Murray Darling Basin for at-risk agricultural communities in his sparse Queensland electorate of Maranoa, Mr Littleproud has barely raised a whimper, and attracted scant media attention, in his first 18-months in Canberra. [5]
Some sources who’ve observed his early efforts around Parliament House say he’s willing to step out to take a swipe at political rivals. But he has a tendency to go over the top and over-step the mark showing a touch if niaevity(sic) and will need to temper that character flaw, now that he’s a cabinet minister with greater responsibility. A bitter rivalry also exists between Mr Littleproud and Queensland independent MP Bob Katter which “makes him see red” one source said and dates back to historical tensions between his father – former Queensland Nationals politician Brian Littleproud – and Mr Katter. [5]
The argument continues. From a headline in the paywalled Cairns’ Post of 17n May, 2019; ‘Time for Katter to go, Agriculture minister says;- The upcoming Federal Elections hits Hinchinbrook with a bang as Agriculture Minister David Littleproud says it is time for Bob Katter to be voted out of Kennedy…’
PARLIAMENTARY CAREER
- Elected to the House of Representatives for Maranoa, Queensland, 2016. Re-elected 2019.
- Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources from 20.12.2017 to 29.5.2019.
- Cabinet Minister from 20.12.2017.
- Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Drought Preparation and Response from 26.11.2018 to 25.1.2019.
- Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Drought Preparation and Response from 2.3.2019 to 29.5.2019.
- Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management from 29.5.2019 to 6.2.2020.
- Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management from 6.2.2020.
- Joint Standing: Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade from 14.9.2016 to 1.7.2019.
- House of Representatives Standing: Communications and the Arts from 14.9.2016 to 11.4.2019; Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources from 14.9.2016 to 11.4.2019.
- Deputy Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Nationals from 4.2.2020.
- Chairman of the Liberal National Party Maranoa Divisional Council.
- Chairman of the Liberal National Party Southern Downs Electorate Council. [3]
Voting record (from They Vote For You)
How David Littleproud voted on key issues since 2016:
- Voted very strongly against increasing scrutiny of asylum seeker management.
- Voted very strongly against increasing trade unions’ powers in the workplace.
- Voted very strongly against implementing refugee and protection conventions.
- Voted very strongly against increasing investment in renewable energy.
- Voted very strongly for privatising government assets.
- Voted very strongly against increasing Aboriginal land rights.
- Voted very strongly against increasing funding for university education.
- Voted very strongly for decreasing availability of welfare payments.
- Voted very strongly against increasing restrictions on gambling.
- Voted very strongly against encouraging Australian-based industry.
- Voted very strongly against increasing consumer protections.
Same-sex marriage
In December 2017, Littleproud was one of four members of the House of Representatives to vote against the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017, which legalised same-sex marriage in Australia. Littleproud had pledged to vote according to the outcome of the Maranoa postal survey held before the vote, which was run by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. His electorate of Maranoa recorded a result of 56.1% against changing the definition of marriage. [ 1]
$20m Murray-Darling Basin fraud
on The current federal Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources David Littleproud has direct family links to the $20 million Murray-Darling Basin fraud which has resulted in police charges in Queensland. David Littleproud’s wife’s cousin, John Norman, is the kingpin of the alleged $20 million fraud and was charged in August 2018 after the police raided his farm in October 2017.
Yet David Littleproud is the one Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the government has overseeing complaints and an investigation into the separate $80 million Murray-Darling Basin Watergate scandal involving federal MP’s Barnaby Joyce and Angus Taylor.
This is shaping up as one of the biggest fraud scandals the country has seen. [7]
It would be hard to top that lead-in yet the blog post does indeed provide much more information we never see highlighted in the mainstream media. (that is code for ‘Murdoch doesn’t want us to know!’)
In August 2017, ABC Lateline also covered the lead-up to the charges being laid https://www.abc.net.au/lateline/murray-darling-basin-plan-a-failure:-farmers-claim/8861572 (this will be deleted by 30 Aug, 2020 and so a copy of the transcript is stored here)
WATER SHORTAGES
The ABC reported on that ‘Thousands of farmers are calling for Federal Water Minister David Littleproud to be sacked, as frustrations around the Murray-Darling Basin Plan boil over.
About 1,500 people showed their anger over water policy and the impact of the Plan at a rally in Tocumwal in central New South Wales and tossed an effigy — of Mr Littleproud sitting in a toilet — into the river.
Rally organiser Jan Beer said the Plan needed to be “paused and fixed” because too many communities were being destroyed. “We decided that David Littleproud is full of you know what, and he is doing nothing about the Basin Plan,” Ms Beer said. “So we had a toilet on the ‘Foodbowl to Dustbowl pipe’ with signs saying: ‘On the nose and leaving us in the ****’, and when we got to the middle of the bridge, we chucked him overboard. “We’ve got a tracker on him and we’ll see if he actually makes it out the Murray mouth. [9]
CLIMATE CHANGE
The drought and water resources minister, David Littleproud, has acknowledged he “totally” accepts that worsening droughts are linked to climate change, as he signalled more taxpayer support for regional communities was coming as Australia’s big dry “escalates”.
Littleproud, who stumbled last month by first telling Guardian Australia he did not know if climate change was manmade, then later clarifying he had always accepted the science on the role humans play in the climate changing, told the ABC on Sunday he understood the link between global warming and drought because “I live it”.
The minister said the government had a responsibility to deal with climate change by facing up “to try and reduce our emissions”. But he said adaptation was now the main game. “This drought in my electorate alone has been going for eight years”. “The reality is, we can’t run away from that. We simply have to get on with it and equip our farmers and communities with the tools to be able to adapt as best they can”.
Despite the fact emissions are rising, and have risen every year since the Coalition scrapped the carbon price legislated by the Gillard government, Littleproud said the government was living up to the commitments made under international climate agreements. He was also positive about the role of renewable energy. “We’re going to see 33,000 gigawatts of renewable energy put on in the next year or so. Most of that will happen in my own electorate.
“We actually want to become the renewable energy electorate. Western Downs shire is screaming at me to become the renewable energy shire of the country with solar and wind,” the minister said.
Asked whether he accepted that global warming meant some farms in Australia could become unviable, Littleproud said there was a market-led transition already under way. “We’ve seen farmers change their practices from being broad-acre back into grazing as the climate’s changed and as that’s taken its toll on its landscape.” He said farmers were already shifting with an eye to long-term viability and the question before government was how to assist people remaining on the land to adapt to changing conditions.
Pressed on what the government’s drought strategy was, because the bulk of a $7bn package the Morrison government points to regularly has not yet been spent, Littleproud said the government was in the process of refining the package with input from significant stakeholders, such as the National Farmers Federation. [10]
COLES AND THE MILK LEVY
The ABC reported online on that; ‘Water Resources Minister David Littleproud wants Australians to boycott Coles — even though the supermarket giant has just pledged more than $5 million in extra payments to dairy farmers in NSW and Queensland.
The call follows an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigation into whether Coles fully passed on a 10 cents per litre price rise it charged consumers for milk to one producer, Norco, as it claimed it would do in Coles’ marketing materials.
Mr Littleproud told RN Breakfast on Monday that Coles’ response was “disappointing”. “They broke their promise, that’s un-Australian,” he said.
ACCC chair Rod Sims said last week that a court process would have prompted delays, and was pleased Norco farmers would now receive additional money starting this week. “We were fully prepared to take Coles to court over what we believe was an egregious breach of the Australian Consumer Law,” he said. “We believe we had a strong case to allege misleading conduct by Coles.”
Norco is a milk co-operative with more than 300 farmers in northern New South Wales and Queensland.
Mr Littleproud has previously called for Australians to boycott Coles.[11]
Labor has demanded an explanation from a federal minister who called for a boycott of Coles and Aldi while owning shares in rival supermarket Woolworths.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said Australians should stop shopping at Aldi or Coles if they wanted a sustainable dairy industry. Mr Littleproud slammed the major supermarkets for continuing to offer milk for $1 per litre, after rival Woolworths announced it would increase its price on budget milk by 10 cents.
But Mr Littleproud’s own parliamentary records show he has shares in Woolworths. His chief of staff, Alison Penfold, also previously worked as a government relations manager for Woolworths. [12]
SUMMARY
Born into a local dynasty, Littleproud appears to be a vindictive person who hates long. His voting record shows him to be a true conservative and his attitude to coal and water is selfish and uncaring.
He is confused and weathervanish on the Climate Question which is no longer a question but a real and present danger which needs strong and immediate action.
His political nous seems to be a little lacking in consistency and commonsense yet is apparently good enough for him to rise in the intellectual paucity of the National Party.
REFERENCES
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Littleproud (ver 23.2.2020)
[2] https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/members/former/bio?id=1025348732
[3] https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=265585
[4] https://www.chinchillanews.com.au/news/katter-says-pollies-dad-back-stabbed-bjelke-peters/3119508/
[5] https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/5205363/burke-and-fitzgibbon-to-test-raw-littleproud/
[7] https://www.chinchillanews.com.au/news/new-mp-does-family-proud-with-big-win/3058143/
[8] https://davidlittleproud.com.au/about/
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Time for Katter to go, Agriculture minister says
The upcoming Federal Elections hits Hinchinbrook with a bang as Agriculture Minister David Littleproud says it is time for Bob Katter to be voted out of Kennedy
Ærchies Archive - Digital Detritus 
Thank you, Ærchie, for confirming what I’ve suspected:
Mr David Littleproud has zero, zilch, and nada to be proud about.
On Sun, 23 Feb 2020 at 20:30, Ærchies Archive – Digital Detritus wrote:
> archiearchive posted: “BACKGROUND Brian George Littleproud (born 25 June > 1941) is a former Australian politician whose father, George Littleproud > served on the Chinchilla Shire Council. Brian Littleproud was born in > Chinchilla, Queensland, and was a teacher and farmer befor” >
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Thanks, Fiona – now working on a certain Mr Kelly – – –
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