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

I am probably one of the few people left in here who actually worked with Malcolm Fraser—although I think, being in the Country/National party in those days, it would be more accurate to say we worked against him! When you write a history book, you do not have any control over the story; you just have to start writing and then follow where the biro leads you. I was very surprised after I completed my history of Australia—which was a moderate bestseller, if I could say so.

A government member: I bought a copy!

Thank you! We sold about 22,000 copies, which was the top-selling nonfiction work in that year. The book starts off with Ted Theodore, and it is a very sad reflection upon Australia history that, while he is easily the most important person in Australian history, I would say that less than 0.01 per cent of the population knows who he is. If you say, 'Who was Ted Theodore?'—and I have done it again and again—they say, 'He was an American president, wasn't he?'

You could not get three more unalike people on the planet than Malcolm Fraser, Paul Keating and Bob Katter. They are great men, prime ministers of Australia, and I am nobody, but you could not get three more unalike people than those three people. Malcolm Fraser was asked who his heroes were. He said the American Franklin Roosevelt and the Australian Edward Theodore. That was a big thing coming from a person who was talking about the founder of the labour movement in Australia. Paul Keating was asked the same question and he said JT Lang and Ted Theodore. Bob Katter, if you walk into his office, sits under a big picture of 'Jack' McEwen, of course, and beside his photo is Ted Theodore. So I always thought that was very much to Malcolm Fraser's credit, and it also told you a lot about him in that he was not bound to the hidebound thinking of the traditional 'Liberal'.

To give you a picture of the man, I think one of the best portraits I heard was from Lee McNicholl, a very good, close friend of mine, who was a vet with a big company. He said, 'We had Fraser out there because he was a shareholder in the company.' I said, 'What's he like?' He said: 'He's really weird. He never spoke to any of us. We talked over lunch, and he just sat there saying nothing.' He said, 'We went back down to the yards working the cattle, and he just came down with us, and he stood there all day in the dust and dirt and worked the gate in the yards,' which is a very dangerous job. You have wild cattle coming through. They can decide to attack you instead of going through the gate. He said: 'He just worked there all day long. People yelled at him, "Do this," and he did it. Then, when he was finished, he just walked up to the homestead, but he still hadn't spoken to anyone.' I think that portrait would tell you a lot about the man.

Malcolm Fraser had a very good intellect. He wrote an article on the sugar industry. This is the thing. You would think, 'Well, what would a grazier from outside of Melbourne know about the sugar industry of North Queensland?' He said that free trade is an appallingly stupid concept in a country where one of the top 10 export industries for its entire history has been the sugar industry. He said the situation is that the Europeans subsidise their sugar, and they are the biggest sugar-producing nation in the world—bigger than Brazil and bigger than India in sugar. They subsidise their product to the tune of around 700 per cent. He said, 'So, if you're talking about free trade, how do you free trade?' This is one of the most important products in Australian history. It saved us and rescued the country in the Great Depression, for example. It is the mainstay of the Queensland economy—that and coal, even to this very day. It is still the biggest employer in the state of Queensland. He said, 'The Americans subsidise it at 300 per cent, and the Brazilians cross-subsidise from ethanol to the tune of about 100 per cent.' Sorry, I will correct that: 'to the tune of about 40 per cent' is what he said.

Now, to give an adequate portrait, I cannot help but tell this story. I was a bit confused as to whether it made the final cut in my history book or it did not. A member of parliament in Queensland tells the story that, when he was a young Liberal, Malcolm came up and had them all in a circle, and he said, 'Now, we've got to decide upon a leader for our party.' This Liberal bloke said, 'Well, haven't we got a leader—Bill Snedden?' 'No, no, no, he's only a stopgap.' They said, 'Well, what about Peacock?' 'Oh, no, we couldn't possibly have him,' and he gave the reasons why. Then they said, 'Well, what about Howard?' Then he gave reasons why it would be impossible to have Howard. After about 15 minutes of going through all the options, someone said, 'What about you, Malcolm?' He said, 'Yes, I suppose I must shoulder my responsibilities.' I thought it was a very funny story, but it also told you a bit about him.

I cannot help but tell one other story about his notorious arrogance. A friend of mine who was very drunk at a function said, 'I'm going to talk to him about roads.' I said: 'Roads are a state matter. You don't talk to the Prime Minister about roads.' Anyway, he elbowed his way up—Malcolm was looking at a point in the ceiling—and he explained to him about roads, and Malcolm completely ignored him. No-one was talking, so I then explained to him about the great Bradfield scheme. Malcolm was still looking at the point in the ceiling, and whilst I was talking to him he just turned around and walked off—whilst I was talking to him!

Having said that: some four or five years later, Bjelke-Petersen announced the building of the great Bradfield scheme, which I had spent 20 years of my life advocating. Within two months Malcolm Fraser came out, completely unapproached by anyone, including the state government, announcing that the federal government would also participate in the building of the great Bradfield scheme. Our wonderful Dr Bradfield, who built the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the underground railway system, which won the international prize for engineering in the year it was built, is probably most famous for what he did not build, which was the Bradfield scheme to take a small proportion of the massive floodwaters from the mountains of Far North Queensland and turn it back through the ranges onto the inland plains of Australia. But it demonstrated (a) that the man had a great vision for his country, (b) that he could translate that vision into real action for the people of Australia, and (c) that he fearlessly went out there to advocate something which may not necessarily have been popular in the southern cities of Australia, nor would it have been understood in the southern cities of Australia.

Ernie Bridge's scheme for Western Australia, which was a similar scheme, cost one of the Liberal aspirants for the premiership of that state an election, it was said, because Perth said, 'Why should we spend any money on that sort of thing?' One should have reminded Perth about O'Connor's pipeline. Having said that: the great tragedy was that Bjelke-Petersen was gone some four months later, and Malcolm was gone some five months after that. The great aspirations of the great Ted Theodore got blown away by the Great Depression, and the winds of politics blew away two very great Australians, I think, in the form of Bjelke-Petersen and Malcolm Fraser.

Malcolm was fearless in advocating a bit of good sense about the economy of Australia. You ask one of your sixth or seventh major export items to work in a corrupted world market and then preach to us about a level playing field. He had the fearless courage to stand up to his Liberal colleagues and write what I thought was a brilliant article in The Financial Review. He was a person that, as I say, could see the bigger picture and the bigger vision. He went for the Bradfield scheme.

But his was the last government in Australian history that defended the little Australian—the ordinary Australian—against the big oil companies and against the Woolworths and Coles. They fearlessly went in with the sites act, confining the ownership of the service stations in Australia to 400 sites. There were 26,000 service stations in Australia at that time, and the oil companies could own no more than 400 sites. So 90 per cent of the throughput belonged to the owner operators, the service station owners of Australia—of whom, I might add, John Howard's father was one.

I have not seen in politics anyone courageously stand up to the oil companies in the 25 years since Malcolm Fraser left the prime ministership of Australia. That is all the more credit to him. He makes his name in the history books as the person who fought tenaciously for the owner-operator, the little bloke, in Australian society. So whilst he may have been tall and yes, he most certainly was arrogant and a most unfriendly person, whilst he may have been all of those things, history will judge you on what happened whilst you were in this place. And history judges him very, very kindly.

The bane of the exporters of Australia, whether they be mining exporters, agricultural exporters or the motor vehicle industry battling for survival against imports, was when the dollar was allowed to free float under Paul Keating. And I, believe it or not, was on record praising Paul Keating. That is something I hate to own up to, but I was. When the dollar was allowed to free fall, it came down where it should be, to 49c—and praise him I should. But then, for reasons inexplicable to me, he propped it up. I spent a day with Doug Anthony, trying to have it explained it to me why Keating would prop up the dollar. Doug Anthony said to me, 'We as the Country Party do not worry about subsidies or tariffs; what we are about is the value of the currency.' Three times the Country Party walked out of coalition; once was under Menzies, leaving Menzies out in the cold for eight years. The first battle they had when they went back into government was when Menzies announced a revaluation of the dollar. Two days later McEwen announced that there would be a devaluation. Needless to say, it was devalued.

Similarly, Billy McMahon announced a revaluation and Doug Anthony, a week later, announced that there would be a devaluation. It was devalued and I got 30 per cent more for my cattle that year. So that is why I loved Doug Anthony!

When Peter Costello came in he, like Keating, initially did the right thing. Heaven forbid that I should be on record as praising Peter Costello but, once again, I was. We get preached to about free trade, but that is all we have ever asked for. You allow the dollar to free fall and it will find its level. Its level, quite clearly, was the level that it hit with Peter Costello, which was 51c. When it was allowed to free fall under Keating it went to 49c and when it was allowed to free fall under Peter Costello it went to 51c.

For reasons that I cannot explain to anyone, the governments of Australia have decided to have a high currency policy. America and China almost came to firing bullets at each other because both of them accused each other of artificially holding down their currency, which of course they are both doing, along with Japan and Europe and every other country on earth. But this is the only country where, whoever is the government, they actually skite about the dollar going up. 'It demonstrates what a brilliant Treasurer I am,' to quote Mr Keating. Mr Costello said constantly in this place, 'The dollar is going through the roof; it reflects glory upon this government.' He would say it humorously, but he said it. I am not actually skiting about putting the dollar up. Once upon a time there was a political party in this place that would have brought the government down for even thinking that way.

Malcolm Fraser brought the currency down 30 per cent when he was in office. So God bless Malcolm Fraser! He saw the bigger vision for his country in things like the Bradfield Scheme. He fearlessly wrote articles pointing out the stupidity of the free trade regime when no-one else on earth was free trading and he aggressively implemented that philosophy for the greater good of all of Australia. That 30 per cent reduction in the value of the currency enabled our car industry and sugar industry to prosper. It was the fathering of mining in this country and it brought prosperity and riches to every aspect of our lives in Australia. So, for all of his arrogance and shortcomings, God bless Malcolm Fraser.

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