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

I applaud the opposition for bringing this forward, because of all the areas that need reform in Australia—and to quote my own book, humble as I am: 'The socialist decision to put in 10 per cent compulsory superannuation? Excellent. Implementation? Disastrous.' We've gone from $70 billion a year going into the stock market, 20 years ago, to $1,700 billion going in today. A bunch of slithering Sydney suits out of Sydney universities now have control of all of the savings of Australia.

I want to put a personal note in here: my wife, she gives me a terrible time—I'm an abused husband! She informed me that her shares—I better not mention the name of the company—in her retirement fund have gone down now for three solid years. I don't know how much she's putting in. She won't tell me, but it might be $15,000 a year. But the value has gone down. Well, you're in a Ponzi scheme!

Kevin Rudd, in his latest book, said, 'The thing that most needs attention is that all of Australia's savings are going into speculation.' He quotes John Maynard Keynes as describing the stock market as a giant roulette wheel. I would call it a Ponzi scheme. If you have gone from putting in $70 billion a year to putting in $1,700 billion a year, we're just buying and selling shells to each other, and it just keeps going up. There is not a person in this House who does not know what happens at the end of a Ponzi scheme, that's for certain. Whatever else I might say about Kevin Rudd, he has got some very serious scores on the board: NDIS, the national transmission line, the best communication system in the world. But we don't need Kevin Rudd to tell us. It should not need Kevin Rudd to tell us that in 1995 60 per cent of all retirement funds went into government securities—where, of course, they should go, where they are guaranteed secure. When you retire, you want to know there is some money around to pay for your retirement. If it's going into speculation, no such guarantee exists.

The 60-40 rule was never objected to by anyone ever. But under the National Competition Policy, it was abolished, instead of the money going into development. Every inch of railway line to the mines in Queensland, every inch that delivers our aluminium, our coal, our copper, silver, lead and zinc, was built by the government out of that money. The biggest power station and the most efficient power station in the world is at Gladstone and it was built out of that money. In fact, the great edifice of the economy of Queensland was built out of that money and that money is now not there. No wonder no dams are being built. No wonder no mines are being opened up. No wonder no factories are being opened up in this country. There is no pool of money from which the infrastructure can be supplied.

So at the very least we should have a look at where it's going—traceability. But the failure of this place to deal with Australian savings going into a Ponzi scheme is a disgrace. At least, let's look at where it's going.

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