Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share 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.

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