Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the opposition for their attempt to give me 15 minutes tomorrow, and I thank the government for giving me 12 minutes tonight. I remain confused. I can tell you the previous speaker from Victoria—the dairying state—did not know that it was his state that instituted milk marketing and it worked there for nearly 100 years. That's an exaggeration; it was about 70 years. Mr Kennett, the Premier of Victoria, deregulated the milk market into Melbourne, so that all they could get in Victoria was the world price for milk. Did people get cheaper milk in Melbourne? No, of course they didn't. Woolworths and Coles sold it at almost the same price, so they achieved absolutely nothing in terms of consumer benefit, but what happened to the farmers? They went down on their knees. But because they were getting around 40c and New South Wales and Queensland were getting 60c, they said, 'Righto, we want this whole minimum price scheme abolished so we can go across the border and get 60c.' They went across the border and they didn't even get 40c because they were in a deregulated marketplace. And a deregulated marketplace where there are only two buyers—effectively, the two supermarket giants—is what I was taught at university is an oligopoly or a duopoly. It's very, very bad indeed for the sellers, and, of course, it's not very good for the people they sell to either.

So we had Mr McEwen, the founder of the Country Party, establishing the milk marketing scheme for Australia and here is his so-called follower standing in this place and saying, 'It'll never work,' after it worked for 70 years. The only reason it stopped working was that Mr Kennett deregulated the milk market into Melbourne, and it's extraordinary to me that a person out of Victoria would not know this. Then they wanted to come across the border. Of course, having had their own industry destroyed, they wanted to destroy ours. They had the numbers and they voted for deregulation. The rest of us and my area were on 59c the day before deregulation and we were on 41c the day after. We had around 230 or 240 dairy farmers before the deregulation was announced. After the deregulation, within about 10 years, we had 39 farmers. I'll repeat that slowly. We had 240 farmers all making a good living. After deregulation, we had 39 farmers. And a lot of those people exited the industry in the most tragic way possible, of course.

Now, who is to blame for this? Is it the dairy farmers? Have they done anything wrong? Is it the people that were buying the milk—have they done anything wrong? Is it Woolworths and Coles who were trying to maximise profits for their shareholders? No, they've done nothing wrong. So, who's got it wrong? The government of Australia, the government of Victoria and the government of Queensland—they've got it wrong. They were the ones that did it.

The only bad guys in this are the Liberal Party, the Labor Party and, to their eternal shame, the National Party. Jack McEwen would turn in his grave. Doug Anthony, whose daddy did exactly the same with the bananas, would turn in his grave if he thought the party that they created and established was now the party of deregulation, smashing to pieces the great edifices that were built.

I was in a state of shock when the Labor Party moved from the price scheme because they'd been anything but innocent in this deregulation. Whilst Mr McEwen was the father of statutory marketing, Mr Keating was the father of the destruction of statutory marketing and the destruction of agriculture in this nation.

We're here to talk about drought, and there seems to be an element of hypocrisy if you represent anywhere in the Murray-Darling Basin because it's totally represented by the Liberal Party, the National Party and the Labor Party who all voted for a 28 per cent reduction in the water. I hope that, if in my area I voted for a 28 per cent reduction in the water in the Mareeba irrigation area, they would tar and feather me, and hang me. I hope that would happen, but it would never happen so long as I've got breath in my soul. I'd never sell my people out and destroy them to please a bunch of ratbag greenies, destroying the people who created this country and the greatness of this country, and who wouldn't know a tree from a billy goat. None of them would know a tree from a billy goat.

So, the Murray-Darling cutbacks: in Victoria they claim, 'Oh, if we reinstituted the Murray scheme, it would only really help those people selling fresh milk in the fresh milk market.' Well, the average Victorian farmer for that 20 per cent that goes into the fresh milk market was worth $140,000 per farmer per year if it was restored—if there was a McEwen or a Doug Anthony out there, it would have been restored. God help the Liberal Party who tried to destroy any of those marketing schemes that saw us get prosperity in the sugar industry, prosperity in the dairy industry, prosperity in the egg industry, and we've watched the complete destruction of agriculture in this country to a point where most of the last 15 years we've been a net importer of fruit and vegetables. You have that galoot who is leading the National Party in this place, wandering around with his hat on saying, 'Oh, we will be the food bowl of Asia.' Listen, imbecile, you will be the begging bowl of Asia. If you can't market aggressively—

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