RADIO personality Alan Jones received a standing ovation at Winton’s Rural Debt Crisis Summit on Friday after he downplayed the benefits for graziers in the free trade agreement with China.
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Mr Jones said he was not stupid enough to think the free trade agreement with China was a good thing.
“You think China is saying ‘aw, let’s go down there and look after, pat little old Australia on the back and look after them, they’re doing it tough .. we’ll let them have a free trade agreement with them we’ll cut all these tariffs and they’ll all get rich and I know it will be a little bit tough on us’.’’ he said.
“Are you kidding me?”
He said the deals China made were for its own self-interest.
He urged the agricultural industry to stand up for itself.
“All I’m saying – and I’ve said it a thousand times – I want the same deal for agriculture as they get for mining,’’ Mr Jones said.
“This industry fed Australia, this industry propped up Australia for years and years and years.”
Mr Jones also observed that no member of the Newman government was “game enough to show their faces” at the summit.
But Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said about 30,000 to 40,000 cattle would be the start of live export to China.
Mr Joyce spoke at the summit, where he said: “I do get a bit depressed when people say there is no future, but that’s a load of rubbish.
“There is a massive future, and we just have to make sure that we get there,” he said.
Free trade with China was about broadening the marketplace and provided more competition on pricing, he reminded farmers.
Struggling farmers across the country shared their views on issues in the agricultural sector and the horror stories of bank foreclosures at the summit.
Mr Joyce did not hear these stories, for after he made his speech early in the summit he left for Sydney – where he was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
An outspoken attendee urged for dismissal of the current government when Mr Joyce answered questions.
“Well I, on behalf of the people here and the constitution, call the governor-general to dismiss this government on the grounds of lack of duty to the people and this country,” he said.
KAP leader and federal member for Kennedy Bob Katter described the summit as ‘‘the last stand in Winton’’.
He said attendees at the crisis meeting were ‘‘unanimous in its determination to seek a reconstruction debt approach to farm debt’’.
Approximately 400 people including leading economists, politicians, government ministers and farmers from across Australia attended the summit called by state member for Mount Isa Rob Katter.
“Farm debt has exploded in nine years from $31,000 million to over $64,000 million last year,” Mr Katter said.
“To reconstruct the bad end of that debt is achievable by government and they need to move in immediately in a situation where the banks are foreclosing at a rate of 10 properties per week.
“Banks do not just foreclose, they’re using duress and even misrepresentation to get people to agree to terms without putting them into receivership.”
Mr Katter said the meeting unanimously rejected the government’s offer of more debt by way of concessional loans.
The meeting also called for a moratorium on all bank foreclosures until the drought ends.
Farmers spoke from the floor to give heart-breaking accounts of their farms being sold up after generations on the land.
Mr Katter said a Winton Rural Crisis Committee would be established to take forward the outcomes of the meeting.