Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I am a very great admirer of John Button and, as a person who has spent an awful lot of money on steel in my lifetime, I do not think I could leave without putting on the public record exactly what John Button did in the steel industry—he and John Prescott. The Australian steel industry produced 80 tonnes per man per year at the same time as Kaochin plant was producing 600 tonne per man per year. His program, along with that of John Prescott, the head of BHP, led the Australian steel industry to move from 80 tonnes per man not to 600 tonnes per man, which was the international benchmark, but to 720 tonnes per man per year, which was the most efficient steel industry in the world.

I have to disagree with the leaders when they say he was a great champion of deregulation, because he had done that by a $360 million subsidy. He was a clever fellow because he had actually promised $780 million on condition that BHP put in $1,500 million. They ended up putting in $1,800 million but the federal government put in $386 million. He was responsible very much for discussions with the unions—and there was deregulation as far as that went—that enabled this industry to become the most competitive industry on earth. What a great monument to leave to the Australian people. In the car industry it was a desperate fight against, from where I sat, deregulation and the removal of tariffs to the circular arrangements in the car industry—and I do not wish to discuss that today—that preserved that industry and fought off its demolition for some 10 or 15 years.

My last memory of John Button was when I ran into him in the street in Melbourne. I said, ‘You rescued the Australian car industry, you rendered the Australian steel industry internationally competitive and you were sacked for your achievements,’ and he roared laughing. I said, ‘Can we have lunch some time?’ and, roaring with laughter still, he said, ‘Love to.’

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