Media Release

REPORTS that the Federal Government will sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with China today, is simply more billows of bulldust from Canberra which will blow away the last venture of manufacturing and decimate agriculture in this country, KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter said today.

“At the present rate the Chinese are gobbling 6-7% ownership of Australian agriculture each year, according to the figures I have seen.

“This is really a joke; the Chinese are practically taking the tariffs off themselves.

“After nine years, when the dairy tariffs are phased out, the vast bulk of the food exports into China will be produced on Australian land owned by Chinese, produced by the Chinese and manned by section 457 Chinese workers. Indeed, it is very generous of them to take tariffs off their own products they are exporting from Australia to China,” said Mr Katter.

“The ridiculousness of all this is that is we don’t have anything to trade with. We don’t have any subsidies and tariffs to remove. We have no bargaining chips to trade with in this country.

“We had the National Party Minister tell us how the American free trade agreement will save Australian agriculture and at the time there was only three areas where we weren’t free trading – sugar, dairy and beef.

“Once the agreement was finalised there was absolutely no benefit to the sugar, dairy or beef industries and to requote one of Australia’s leading economists the only benefit Australia received was an ice cream a week.

“The Americans blew away our strict quarantine protections under the previous free trade agreement, and we are certain our quarantine protections will be further eroded with this. Their diseased product will be allowed into Australia, and for how much longer will we be clean and green?

“Meantime there is a farmer being foreclosed on every four days in Australia.

“We will be very specific and warn my fellow Australians unless you sink the ship load of eco-rats that run Canberra and occupy seats in Parliament that we will continue to witness the complete and utter destruction of Australian agriculture,” Mr Katter said.