Media Release

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is not giving up on Free Trade anytime soon. At the APEC meeting in Peru, the Prime Minister told the world stage Free Trade must be embraced, not retreated from. His speech is being interpreted by some as positioning Australia as the last bastion of Free Trade in the wake of Trump election.

KAP Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter said “Prime Minister Turnbull is doing himself untold damage. Both he and the Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten are spending their time in a Free Trade dinosaur graveyard.

“I’ve got no complaints to make about China. They will buy what is cheap and what they need from Australia. If it doesn’t want to buy it, it won’t.

“And some silly bit of paper signed by Prime Minister Turnbull and the 4th Assistant Secretary in China ‘aint gonna make any difference to what China does and doesn’t want to buy.

“When will our leaders stop preaching to the public and spend their time creating industry in Australia?!

“Build the dams, build the rail line into the Galilee, get out of your tapestry towers and get your hands dirty and join the rest of Australians instead of preaching ideologies of the 19th century instead of the 21st century!

“Brazil, India, China, Europe and Japan treat such platitudes of Free Trade deals with the contempt they deserve.

“Free marketism has destroyed Australia’s biggest export item – wool. (Keating’s deregulation).

“It has completely destroyed the whitegoods industry, fridges, stoves, air conditioners, washing machines… are all imported, and all our tech /electronics are all imported.

“Our textiles, footwear and clothing -- probably 150 000 jobs – all gone overseas. Bonds underwear being the last victim.

“Mineral processing, we don’t export metal, we export dirt. And the Free Market has seen our electricity soaring 100 per cent.”

##ENDS##