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

This is serious stuff. I do not think this is really the time for laughing and humour. You cannot write a history of Australia without putting in that history the story of Holden. It is one of the great achievements of the Australian people—the story of the Holden family and Laurence Hartnett. We are watching that great path of Australian history, that great achievement of the Australian people, cease.

I and others, almost exclusively from the crossbench, have risen in this place again and again and spoken about the value of the dollar. You should not come into this place if you do not understand the value of the dollar; you really should not be here.

Paul Keating did the right thing initially. He allowed the dollar to float, and it went down to 49c. That was the true value of the Australian dollar: 49c. Then he drove it up.

Honourable members interjecting—

Please listen. You might learn something.

Then he drove it up through the roof. Peter Costello came in and again did the right thing and allowed the dollar to free float. It went down to 5c. If you allow the dollar to free float, that is where it will go. Then, like Keating, for reasons best known to himself—or the Reserve Bank—he drove it up to over 92c.

I have asked for a picture; I do not have it here, but it is a picture of me filling up a car in Sao Paolo in Brazil. The car is an Australian motor car. I said, 'Is your fleet all Australian motor cars?' He said: 'Yes. The Holden motor car, the Caprice, is an excellent car. I have always had Holden Caprices but I won't be buying them next year.' I said, 'Why?' He said: 'Because your dollar has doubled in value and that means that, in terms of Australian money, I was paying $36,000 and now I'm paying $72,000. So I'm going to buy the Brazilian car which is $37,000. I don't think it's quite as good but I can't afford to pay $72,000.'

That is what the manager of Holden said today. If our interest rates are 2.7 per cent—that was the three-year average last time I looked—and the rest of the world's is an average of 0.2 per cent, it not only says to the world, 'Put your money here in Australia and buy Australian dollars because you'll get a much better interest rate'; it also says to the rest of the world that we have a policy of having a high dollar, which will continue. All I am saying is that, when it was allowed to free float, it came down. That is where it went. Both those men, Mr Keating and Mr Costello, allowed the dollar to free float and it went down to 50c. I hold up for the edification of the House that picture of me filling up a Holden motor car in Sao Paolo. If the dollar were allowed to free float today, when our economy is much narrower, then God bless people. Leading economists—including David Koch, who was on a morning program, and Ross Garnaut, with whom I disagree violently on many things—and business people throughout this country have said we must bring the dollar down.

Cattlemen were done incredible damage by the ban on live cattle export to Indonesia but we were already in trouble before that. We simply cannot live with the dollar. Our incomes in the cattle industry and the wheat industry and at Holden have effectively been cut in half because the dollar went down. We do not have a problem with wages if the dollar is cut in half. The people on my left talk all the time about wages being too high; I would suggest we let them set a good example. But I do not want to make cheap shots. I take that back.

I say to you: you will live in a country without the ability to build a motor vehicle. I sit under a picture of one of the greatest ever Australians, Jack McEwen. Jack McEwen said the third reason for having tariffs was that:

… I will never see my country plunged into another war without the ability to build a main battle tank.

The immediate solution to this problem, and our little tiny party has been screaming this for ages, is for every car bought under a government contract in Australia—which is 25 per cent of the cars in Australia—to be an Australian motor car. That is very easy, and the Americans have already done it in the steel industry. George Bush moved the legislation and it was carried through by Barack Obama. Both of them said that if it receives one dollar of government money, then it will contain 100 per cent American steel.

The Americans are attacking the Chinese for artificially holding their currency down, and they are. You can use the word artificial if you like but they are holding their currency down, no doubt about that. The Chinese have accused the Americans of holding their currency down—and they are, no doubt. No-one will ever accuse this country of holding its dollar down because we have actually pushed it up through the roof. One of the greatest damages done in this place was when Peter Costello—and I like Peter Costello personally—continually skited in this place that a high dollar was an indication of the success of the government. That comment demonstrates the complete opposite, but I am not here to denigrate him or anyone else today.

I agree with the amendment being pushed forward, to be quite frank with you, even though I also agree with the opposition that action should be taken. But let me say to you that when the Reserve Bank said they were reducing interest rates and addressing the issue of the value of the dollar—when they put that magic combination together—the dollar went down 20c. So we know where the answers are.

David Koch, for all his humour and light-heartedness on his program in the mornings that we all love, is also a very eminent economist. He put this proposition forward with great aggression, as did his wife and Ross Garnaut and many of the leading business figures in this country. But I have mines closing. I have cattlemen shooting themselves, very sadly, at the rate of one every five weeks now. The value of our dollar—

Government members interjecting—

There is a fellow here questioning that. I will give you the name of one of them: Jimmy Whelan. You can look it up. His son committed suicide nine weeks ago and you are laughing at that. You seem to think it is funny. You seem to think you are making a political statement about it.

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