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

I rise to very strongly support the member for Fowler on this motion. It's just a simple measure that puts $2,000 a year in the pockets of hardworking Australians. It's a very, very simple proposition. There's nothing sophisticated about it, and I wish we could see more of that in this place. Morris Iemma, the Premier of New South Wales, said, 'I will not go another day without addressing the issue of people dying that simply don't have to die.' With that, he introduced 6½ per cent ethanol content to rescue people's lives, and that is why every country on earth has done it.

Two countries on earth that haven't done it—the only two that I know of—are Australia and New Zealand. Did you know that they are the only countries that have a foreign monarch on their coins? In our case, it's a very unpleasant foreign monarch. Do we believe that all people are free and equal? Absolutely not.

Let me return to the price of petrol. The honourable member for Fowler is doing something about it. Morris Iemma, if he got his way, would move towards Brazil, where 49.2 per cent of the petrol is ethanol and they fill up for $1.09 a litre. That measure, plus the member for Fowler's measure, would put $3,500 in the pocket of every hardworking Australian.

We are talking about EVs. The Queensland government said they are very proud to say they are spending $62,000 million dollars on their new generation of electricity supply. Multiply that by the other states in Australia and you can see that you're not saving any money on electricity. Our electricity charges in Queensland were $700 when the government fell. On that basis, they should be around about $900 now, and, of course, they are around $4,000. That's what you've imposed—an extra $3,000 upon the electricity users—and you've got an opportunity to take $3,000 off, which is being precipitated today by the member for Fowler.

Don't you people sit down and think? We on the crossbenches have raised the issue of Woolworths and Coles and their 200 per cent mark-up on food. Electricity has got a 400 per cent mark-up, put on it by you people on both sides—not one side; both sides—of this house. Our motorcars are imported from overseas. The dollar dropped by half, so the price of a motorcar doubled in Australia. On housing prices, you set the regulatory impositions. Have you done anything to remove the regulatory impositions on subdivisions? No.

The word 'affordability' floats around this place like bulldust in a Bedourie dust storm I can tell you, but I see no practical benefits coming from all of this discussion on affordability, except that from the initiative of the member for Fowler. We applaud that initiative and we repeat that this country is sending $48,000 million a year overseas to buy petrol. We are sending $30,000 million overseas every year to buy motorcars.

When this country was run by decent people who cared and thought—and I still own a picture of Jack McEwan—he said that the most important thing for government was to get it right. Education is no replacement for hard work in getting it right. If there was the remotest effort or hard work here, you would address the issue of Woolworths and Coles, you would address the issue of electricity, you would address the issue of importing motorcars, and you would address the issue of house prices.

The government has announced that they're going to import EVs—not hybrids, which is what we need. No, they're going to import EVs—import! They're lowering the taxation on imported motor vehicles from China. What are we in the business of promoting? We're going to get our electricity from China. We're getting our motor vehicles from China. We're now going to replace our petrol and energy— (Time expired)

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