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

Farm debt 10 years ago was $31 billion. Farm debt now, 10 years later, is $64,000 million. The number of farmers has declined by 30,000, from 213,000 down to 186,000. Farm debt has reached the stage where not only is it crippling the nation but also it will affect Australian economic performance. For the answers to this, of course, we must ask: what are the problems? The problems are very simple. The rest of the world is on 0.26 per cent interest rates and we are on 2.8 per cent—a 1,000 per cent difference. We have a policy of a dramatically overvalued currency, so every farmer has been cheated out of half his income. That is not a figure plucked out of the air. When Mr Keating allowed the dollar to freefall it went down to 49c—very good and congratulations, Mr Keating. But then he blew it up through the roof. Mr Costello also did the right thing: he allowed a free-floating dollar. When he allowed it to free float it went to 49c.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Maybe these people would like to take over my speech, would they? Would you like to take over my speech? Could you shut them up please, Mr Speaker, while I am trying to speak? Clearly, when the dollar is allowed to free float it goes down to around 50c, and that is where it should be. If you have to prop up your currency by having interest rates a thousand per cent higher than the rest of the world then there is something terribly wrong with your economic management or something terribly wrong with your economy and where it is going. We have got a $60,000 million a year current account deficit, and all we ever hear about in this place is a balanced budget—a balanced budget for the government. I would like a little bit of discussion about balancing the budget for the country, and to let Mr Keating have the last word. When it was $15,000 million he said we were going to be a banana republic. When it was $26,000 million, Mr Howard said it was the 'overwhelming problem above all else', because the country was going broke. Now it is not $15,000 million or $22,000 million; it is $60,000 million. The solutions to this problem are very simple. (Time expired)