Media Release

“What about our farmers?” was the cry today from Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter - following the Prime Minister’s announcement of at least $1 billion in aid to help third world nations deal with climate change.

Mr Katter’s comments come as farmers and graziers across much of Queensland and even Australia face their fourth wet season in a row with no proper rain, plunging many into dire financial circumstances. Shocking tales from the land continue to emerge of farmers having to choose between either feeding or shooting their cattle.

Mr Katter today asked the question many are thinking – why aren’t we spending the same amount to save rural Australia?

“Why are we giving $1,000 million away to foreign countries when our own people are suffering the most dreadful of circumstances?” Mr Katter asked.

“It is unbelievable to me when last year we had a farmer doing away with himself every 2 weeks - and that’s just our farmers – it doesn’t include others around Australia who have lost their jobs in various industries.

“But we have the fourth year in a row where Northern Australia has had no real wet season.

“The Government says ‘they’re looking into it, they’re having inquiries, they’re deeply concerned’ - do they realise what that sounds like to the people of inland Australia who are financially and physically dying?

“Do they realise that this Government will go down in history as the Government that put the coup de grace on inland Australia?”

Mr Katter said that everybody in the industry agreed that a Reconstruction Board was desperately needed and that the beauty was that it would not cost the Government a cent.

“Whether it’s Shire Councils, industry representatives or massive grass roots crisis meetings like Winton’s ‘Last Stand’, there has been complete unanimity of opinion that a Reconstruction Board is needed,” Mr Katter said.

“It shrinks the bank repayments for an average million dollar debt from $150,000 in interest and repayments to probably $25,000 per year, once the Government takes over the debt at a reduced rate and loans it back to the farmer at the Government interest rate of 2.25%.

“So the farmer’s commitments shrink, which means that almost all will pull through.”

Mr Katter also has his own solutions to the C02 problem – ethanol.

“The ‘Patron Saint of Greenies’ Al Gore, in his book “An Inconvenient Truth”, nominates the first solution to climate change – and right from the start we have said that one of the major benefits of ethanol is the reduction of C02.

“With the introduction of ethanol and the building of half a dozen dams producing ethanol we would dramatically reduce C02 emissions in Australia by 10-15 per cent,” Mr Katter said.