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

The previous speaker really cannot come into this House to represent the ALP and stand up with a straight face—Dick Adams most certainly would not attempt to do it—when she represents a party that stopped the Franklin Dam from going ahead. The member for Franklin is making faces. Tell the House: did the ALP federal government—the party that you represent in this place—stop the Franklin Dam? You stand up here and tell us that you are doing a wonderful job. I have news for you: if you pick up the latest edition of National GeographicI will help you out to save you a little bit of time with your research—you will see that it has Australia at 31 or 51 and America at 506. If you divide the population of America by that of Australia you will realise we are not doing very well in the renewables stakes at all. In fact, if you have a quick look at the two pages in National Geographic you will realise we are dragging the chain very badly indeed. I felt so sorry for poor little Tasmania over the Franklin Dam decision, which was made by a few people who will probably be kindly thought of as very peculiar and on the very margins of the belief systems of the rest of Australia. I do not know; the people in this place just do not seem to be able to get the message.

Mr Latham went down to Tasmania to tell us all that he was going to save the trees—at the expense of some jobs, of course. I rang my campaign director and said to change all the advertising. He said, ‘I’ve already changed it.’ We were advertising on the basis that we would have the balance of power. Once Latham said that, there was not going to be any balance of power; there was going to be a slaughter. And that was exactly what happened. People like Dick Adams, who represent their electorate and their people rather than their party, took a very strong stand and were handsomely rewarded by the voters down there. But he did not do it to be rewarded by the voters.

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