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

I move:

That this House:

(1)

resolves that it will oppose any sale of the Australian Securities Exchange that would provide majority foreign ownership; and

(2)

notes that such a sale would not merely involve the ASX as an asset, but may hand over to a foreign corporation the regulatory function inherent in a stock exchange.

In moving this motion, I recall sitting in this place while I watched the six great mining companies of Australia—many of my forebears had gone down their mines and had done various other things to contribute to the growth of those companies—sold off to foreign ownership. We have for the first time in probably 30 or 40 years a trading surplus in this country, but of course the balance of payments is skyrocketing out of control. I cannot help but mention Mr Keating. When the balance of payments was $15 billion, he said, ‘We’re in danger of becoming a banana republic.’ When it hit $23 billion, the Leader of the Opposition at the time, John Howard, reminded him of the statement and said, ‘It was the overwhelming problem above all else.’ It is now $60 billion, not $15 billion—‘a banana republic’; and not $23 billion—‘the overwhelming problem above all else’. I am only a humble Cloncurry boy and a simple backbencher in the parliament of Australia, so I do not know about these things. But these two men had held the offices of Treasurer and Prime Minister of this country, and so if anyone should have known about the serious nature of the balance of payments it should have been them, yet the six great mining companies of Australia were flogged off to overseas ownership and now the great profits that come into Australia from coalmining, aluminium and iron ore simply boomerang back out again. So whilst Australia has a trade surplus its balance of payments—some five or six per cent of our GDP—is one of the worst in the entire world.

Members in this parliament stood here and agreed to the sale of these great mining companies—Western Mining Corporation, BHP, North, Normandy and MIM, which was in my own backyard. Since the deregulation of the dairy industry in 2000, we have watched over its sale. The five corporations that account for about 80 or 90 per cent of our dairy processing are now foreign owned. Like the mining companies, they were all Australian owned some 15 years ago. Also, 40 per cent of our meatworks has gone overseas. AMH, as you are well aware, was Australian owned and accounted for most of the processing of meat in this country. Golden Circle and IXL are the great processing giants of Australian fruits and vegetables. Our horticultural industries have vanished under foreign ownership. The AWB, arguably the biggest corporation in this country, is in the process of being flogged off overseas, as is two-thirds of our sugar industry. Every one of these things was Australian owned. Now every single one of them—the great juggernauts of Australian industry—is foreign owned.

We are here tonight not to discuss the sale of chook farms or factories or any of the other tangible assets which I have referred to but to discuss another sale—and this is a qualitative change. Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to be able to speak to you without listening to other people—

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