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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I ask everyone I meet what they think about things, and I keep a record of that. Thirty per cent of their answers are that they are shocked and horrified by the government selling Australia off and selling Australia out. Some years ago, I was in a debate with a prominent Liberal cabinet minister—one of the top four—and one of the top three in the opposition shadow cabinet. The shadow cabinet minister accused the government of being negative towards foreign investment. The government member said, 'We have been responsible for more foreign investment in this country than any other government in Australian history.' The Labor member then got up and argued that Labor had been responsible for more foreign investment in this country than any other government. When it was my turn, I said, 'Well, listen to them; they're both arguing: "I sold more of my country off than you did." "No, I sold more of my country off than you did."' I said: 'That's what they're saying. I'll tell you, I'm not in favour of selling any of my country off.' It was at one of those stupid Q&A sessions. The entire crowd burst into spontaneous applause for what I said, and they listened in shocked horror at what the other two were saying.

There is the classic example of just how far out of step this place is with the rest of Australia. They're skiting about foreign investment, and the rest of Australia is shocked and horrified at the foreign investment in Australia. Is it foreign investment? I'm sure that two of my brother-cousin blackfellas were standing around out here in this place saying, 'These whitefellas are coming in and they're bringing tomahawks and blankets—oh geez, it's real good for us all.' I don't think there would be too many First Australians these days who would say that the attitude they adopted then was a good idea. They suddenly woke up one morning and they didn't own or control their own country, or even have a say in the running of their own country. We won't go into the plight of First Australians today.

The governments of Australia, with their wonderful foreign investment, got all this foreign investment in the gas industry. They sold the gas industry for 6c a unit, and we Australians have to buy our own gas at $16 a unit! This may be academic for people in the cities; it may even be academic for the brainless people that run Canberra—I'm talking about the Public Service. It may be academic to them, but it ain't academic for anyone that's concerned with balancing the budget and having prosperity for Australians, because that is one of the major cost input items for industry.

We are not a mining country anymore. We do not mine—mining is when you take it out of the ground and process it and sell a metal. That's mining. When you take it out of the ground and sell the ground, that's called quarrying. So we don't mine; we quarry. The reason we can't mine is that our electricity charges are the highest in the world—that's an advertisement on the television, but I don't doubt it for a moment. Last time I looked, West Germany's electricity charges were above ours, but I understand that since we've moved to nearly 20 per cent renewables we most certainly have the most expensive electricity in the world. And the answer from the ALP is to move to total renewables so we can have a supercharged electricity system—easily the worst in the world. That means all processing simply closes down. You've lost your mining industry; you now only have the quarrying industry. You've lost your gas industry, you've lost your petrol industry and you're going to lose your aluminium industry and your steel industry—they've both made it quite clear that they can't afford the price of doing business in Australia, specifically electricity.

Now, whether electricity is totally foreign owned, I don't know. Clearly the Chinese people own a quarter—arguably, over a third—and there are other foreign interests that own other parts of the electricity industry. There are now only four bodies that own electricity in Australia. You've sold the biggest coal port in the world, so the owner of the coal port can charge whatever they like, under the free trade agreement with China. You've sold the most strategic port for the Americans in the South Pacific. Is there anything that you haven't sold? Well, for those who study history, we yelled out for the British to come and save us in the Second World War; no British appeared on the horizon. Two of their boats tried to escape from the Pacific and got sunk, but they were trying to escape, not attack, so we had to call upon the Americans to come and save us. Do we have any hope? We've got 35,000 silly little complicated, sophisticated rifles to defend the country. When we were at war with Indonesia last time, we had 1½ million rifles. So what are we going do? Call out the Americans to come and save us? They placed 2,000 marines at Darwin because it's the most strategic port for them in the South Pacific. They've got the Philippines, but that's in the central Pacific—nothing in the South Pacific. But the government sold the port of Darwin. They will be remembered in infamy forever for that sale.

The only water available for irrigation in the Northern Territory and Western Australia is the Ord. Thirty-one Australians applied for water in the Ord, expressions of interest were called, and the Liberal government gave all the water—all of stage 2 and stage 3—to the Chinese. You've given away to China the only port in the northern half of Australia, except for coal ports, and the only water available for development in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Let me be very specific and use two examples. One is the Brisbane Airport: $5½ billion was expended in its development. Brisbane Airport is foreign owned. At five per cent, we lose $250 million a year. That was just on the improvements to the airport and development of the airport. There's no doubt the profits on the usage of the airport would be $1,000 million. So now we have $1,250 million drifting offshore every year as a result of that sale. And the taxis? You gave effectively half of the licences in Australia away to Uber. So there's a thousand million going offshore. Another strategic asset. Our four great mining companies in Australia—Western Mining Corporation, BHP, MIM and Rio Tinto Australia—were all Australian owned. Now none are Australian owned. Not one single one of our major mining companies is Australian owned—and I'm not including the goldmining giants, all of which are foreign owned.

You've failed to balance the budget, and your free markets have been a disastrous failure, so now you're balancing the budget by selling off the farm. Here it is: you sold all your mining assets, you sold all your gas, you sold half of your electricity—we can't find out how much has been sold—you sold the airports and you sold the seaports. You've sold everything that can't be nailed down. Me and my colleague from Hobart, who I'm very proud to be associated with, are saying 'no more!' on behalf of the Australian people. Eighty-two per cent of them say no more! (Time expired)

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the bill and reserve my right to speak.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allocated for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made in order of the day for the next sitting.