Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I had drafted a press release on SPC Ardmona where inter alia l attacked MP Sharman Stone on her hypocrisy since she is the member of a free market party.

But her statement, attacking her government for blaming the SPC decision on wages is laudable.

The argument wages are causing this problem at SPC Ardmona is just another veiled attack upon the already very moderate incomes of most working people.

By the way Mr Hockey, when SPC Admona closes, you lose $10million/year in tax revenue and pay $40milion/year in Australian Government welfare payments.

The Deputy Prime Minister in the debate on SPC Ardmona, upon my resolution in the parliament, stated the problem was not the Australian dollar, it was wages. He states that Americans worked for $8 per hour, ($290 per week). The average house rent in Australia is over $300 a week.

Every politician in Australia should be aware that Paul Keating and Peter Costello allowed the dollar to free float and it fell to 49c. Both of them then drove it up to 52c respectively by buying dollars and imposing high interest rates.

Article XIX of the WTO agreement allows effectively two years of emergency tariffs where an industry is threatened. Our Interest rates are 3.2 per cent where the rest of the world is 0.28 per cent. This props up the dollar by nearly 100 per cent.

Mr Hockey your high dollar policy provides an import subsidy of nearly 100 per cent.

Hon Bob Katter MP
Federal Member for Kennedy
Leader - Katter’s Australian Party