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

They did things. I do not want you to think that they did not do things; they most certainly did things. I sit in my office under a picture of Ted Theodore, who built all our sugar mills and our grain silos in Queensland and sold them to the farmers. We thank him. He was a great hero of Queensland. I sit under a picture of Jack McEwen. Jack McEwen, as soon as he was appointed a minister, fought the battle of the pound. He got stuck straight into Menzies and said, ‘There’ll be no going back to the old value of the pound, because that will cheat our farmers out of huge amounts of income.’ And Menzies agreed with him because three times the Country Party had walked out of coalition over the issue of the value of the pound. Doug Anthony, a great Australian, said in 1972 to the Australian press, ‘McMahon will bring down the dollar or I will bring down the government.’ They knew that these were not men to trifle with. These were men who believed in the people who they were sent here to look after and protect.

For 11 years, the National Party sat in this place and presided over the dollar rising from 60c to 95c, and they actually skited about it. They said to us what a wonderful thing it was and that it was a demonstration of how successfully they were running the economy. Well, it was very successful for city Australia and it was very damn painful for those of us who live outside of the cities of Australia.

I cannot speak for the rest of Australia, but for 11 years we went on bended knee and pleaded with the former government, now opposition, to restrain the dollar. Do you know what was holding the dollar up? We all know now what was holding the dollar up, because the minute interest rates went down 0.1 of a per cent the dollar collapsed through the floor. It was the interest rates imposed by the last government that pushed the dollar up through the roof and deprived all of the primary producers of Australia of 50 per cent of their income. They were cheated out of 50 per cent of their income for 10 years. Even the most cursory glance at the history books of Australia tells you what wonderful and great men we were led by in the days of the Country Party under Earl Page, under Artie Fadden, under Jack McEwen and also under Doug Anthony. They were men that made that the issue of government. If that was the issue of government, then these people, the Nationals, stand condemned.

The people of country Australia once gave them 19 seats. When Doug Anthony left we started on our career downhill, where we never took a stand on anything, and we are now down—you are now down—to nine seats. We have gone from 19 seats to nine seats. But did you get the message? No. The man that was responsible for the deregulation of the sugar industry and for handing over every single sugar seat in this parliament to the ALP and to the Independents is now their leader. They rewarded him! In a way, I suppose, if you are a team of losers, you put the best loser up front. He is their chief loser.

I have not got time to speak about Woolworths or Coles or the fact that, within two years of the dairy deregulation, every four days in Australia a farmer commits suicide—the great shame of our nation. Who was responsible for it? These hypocrites that are standing up over here—that is who is responsible.

Time is running out for the people on this side. You have got a chance to introduce ethanol. If you do not, then just remember those six seats went in that direction. (Time expired)

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