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

If there was a criticism there, I withdraw it. I want to stay positive as far as humanly possible here. But the situation is that, if you represent a country electorate and you do not know the pain that is going on, then I do not think you do represent a country electorate.

If the dollar drops in half then the income for all of those people—the grain growers, the dairymen, the cattlemen and the workers in the motor vehicle industry in Australia—will double. So you know where the answers lie. The immediate answer is to use the government contract to restrict them to purchasing Australian motor cars. It is my understanding that the cars of the Catholic schools in Queensland, for example, are bought under a government contract. I am told that 25 per cent of the cars in Australia are bought under government contracts. So the answer lies with the government.

I plead on behalf of every single Australian for the government to rescue this industry and to not watch our country be left out and lose the ability to make an electric motor, a tyre or now a motor car. What technology will we be left with in this country if we continue to pursue the government's policy that it is not their responsibility and it has nothing to do with them? It most certainly has. The answers are there. I have described them today. They do not come from me; they come from the most eminent economists in this country. I plead with the government to look at those solutions. (Time expired)

See this speech in context