When Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull met British Prime Minister Theresa May two weeks ago he hoped to secure a “strong” free trade agreement between Australia and Britain. KAP Member for Kennedy believes Australia will only end up worse off and “political interference” is not required to take advantage of #Brexit trade opportunities.
Mr Katter said, “We are the weakest trading nation on earth and we should despise free trade deals. Free trade deals are the ceding of our sovereignty.
“Free trade deals have proved disastrous for Australia. Every single report that’s come out indicates Australia comes off second best.
“Our leaders are so mind numbingly stupid they actually think that a free trade deal wins them votes in Australia. When Prime Minister Abbott stood up and signed a free trade deal with China, he was gone within five or six weeks. Hardly the stuff of winning the hearts and minds.
“The British have made their statement with #Brexit. We as a nation have to grow up and cease to be an economic colony.
“I think the UK offers splendid opportunities for our beef our sugar and to a lesser extent our dairy products.
“Effectively sugar was not allowed into the EU. I will be seeking discussion with Queensland Sugar Limited to move aggressively to capture this market. The deal should not be with government, the deal is with purchasers of sugar in Great Britain, and the soft drink manufactures, the supermarket retailers, the confectionary manufactures. We don’t need political interference.
“Britain joining the EU saw around 25 per cent of Australia’s beef exports vanish overnight, collapsing our beef market to the point where I missed the sale day in Julia Creek where a competitor of mine bought 1000 cows for a dollar a head, they’d been $70 the year before. That was the damage of Britain going into the EU, whilst the benefits won’t be as great with them coming out; it is still wonderful news for the consumers of Great Britain. They’ll get their sugar at half the price they’ve been paying and their beef with a very formidable drop in price indeed.”
Katter: Over the next 20 years most of Australia’s farmland will be foreign owned
07 September 2016 KAP Member for Kennedy would like to remind people that the last disclosure of foreign ownership released by the Government in 2013 showed 12.4 per cent foreign ownership of all agricultural land.
Mr Katter said, “The 2013 report said 12.4 per cent so we’ve had an increase to 13.6. Over the next 20 years most of Australia’s farmland will be foreign owned. Nearly a 1.2 per cent increase in two years.”
Mr Katter does not think the findings of the report tell a story of modesty as some elements of the Government are trying to frame it, “30 per cent of NTs farmland is foreign owned, 22 per cent of Tassie – that’s extraordinary!
“Forget about your grandkids getting on to the land, that can’t happen, they can’t compete. In most of these countries buying into Australia, they can borrow money at 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. In Australia, it is impossible to borrow money for agriculture for less than 8 per cent, which gives our competitors a massive advantage.”
Mr Katter thinks it is irrelevant if the UK, US or China own more of Australia, “Ted Theodore’s Government took all the land off our British Landlords and Masters and parcelled it out to Queenslanders both in the sugar industry and in the cattle industry. He was known as “Red Ted”
“With Australian owner operators, owning and working their own land, Australia’s production went through the roof and in fact the sugar industry rescued Australia from the Great Depression.
“Robert Ardrey’s landmark books show the enormous benefits for owner operator agriculture compared with the land being owned by Corporate Absentees.
“We ran out entire campaign on Australia “Not for Sale” and got a near record for majority in the Kennedy Electorate. There is a message there for our politicians, and politics seems to be the only language they understand.”