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

Well, I do not know which one you have because I asked the library for all 15 of them before Christmas and I have not had a request for one single one of them to be returned. I do not know which one you are reading. But, if you read them, you would know that the only industry that showed serious economic clout as far as taking Australia out of the Depression was the sugar industry. It is very interesting because in 1938—almost after the Depression was over—the government belatedly decided that they had to give a minimum-price scheme for sugar. The minimum-price scheme followed the German economic model, and by 1932 Germany had no depression. They were flying; they had great prosperity in 1932. I might add, for the edification of the opposition, they spent money—they spent absolutely heaps of it. They actually printed money. Hjalmar Schacht printed money. When the scheme was put in place, the first thing they did was give the farmers a guaranteed livable price for their product, and one million of the six million people unemployed were taken off the unemployment rolls and put on to the farms in Germany, by the farmers themselves. Once they were given a price they could live with, they went out and spent money and employed people and got the German economy going.

Returning to the bill proper, leaving the present group of people there: Minister, I have to say that I am really not pleased with the exceptional circumstances situation. I had two very bad cases under the previous government. In fact, the cases were so bad that it was alleged that the then Minister for Trade, the now member for Wide Bay and the Leader of the National Party in this place—although it is rather a curious situation—

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