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

This place reminds me of the comment, 'Nero fiddled while Rome burned.' We are now importing $62,000 million worth of fuel every year. There's a fight going on right at the heart of the supply line and the supply of oil. Why has our country chosen to import $62,000 million of fuel—that's $12,000 for every family in Australia every year—when we have 32 per cent self-sufficiency in oil, we are arguably the biggest exporter of sugar and we are amongst the three or four biggest exporters of grain in the world? Guess where you get ethanol from? Grain and sugar. That's where you get it from. Brazil is on 68 per cent ethanol and is totally self-sufficient in oil. But here we are in the most precarious situation, and nothing is being done.

We're amongst the four biggest sugar-exporting countries. We're amongst the three biggest grain-exporting countries. We are 32 per cent self-sufficient in oil anyway. When the CopperString is built, the vanadium oil deposits will open up right across the top of North Queensland. Massive oil— (Time expired)