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

I agree with the previous speaker’s remarks about the opposition  talking about debt. Remember the debt truck the last government had running around Australia, saying how terrible the ALP was, when the debt was $194,000 million? When they had finished with the Australian economy, the debt was $678,000 million. Whenever Mr Costello said he had balanced his budget, I could not help but scream out—and I know it is very bad form—’You balanced your budget but you sure didn’t balance the budget of this country. It’s a pity you didn’t spend a bit more time looking after the country instead of looking after your own political profile,’ because that is what was done. Having said that, with all due respect to the last speaker, we have the lowest manufacturing base of any country. I am sorry: I flare up when they say that we are going to be the smart country. Let us be brutally blunt about it; we think that, because we are Anglos, we are a little bit smarter than everybody else—that is what is in our heads.

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