Robbie Katter has vowed to keep fighting for a rural bank despite his bill being defeated by a joint Labor and LNP vote in parliament last week.
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Speaking on the North West Star’s Elevenses live broadcast on Monday on our Facebook page Mr Katter said a rural bank would have really stimulated the economy over the longer term.
“Towns like Richmond, Hughenden, Boulia and Croydon are struggling on the back of the cattle industry, and in the industry itself the biggest cost is the interest they pay on the debt so the bank is the big winner,” Mr Katter said.
“There has been four or five times in our history we’ve had a development or rural bank where the government has stepped in.”
Mr Katter said the big banks’s interest rates had to be inside the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) guidelines.
”The APRA guidelines are a set of measures to protect the interest of shareholders in the bank,” he said.
“The banks themselves say the guidelines hamstring them from doing their job properly.”
According to Mr Katter a producer who owed $3m would pay $100,000 a year to a rural bank compared to $300,000 a year to the majors, money saved which would be spent in towns.
“Most of this bill is about the towns not the cattle stations,” he said.
Most of this bill is about the towns not the cattle stations
- Robbie Katter
Mr Katter said in times gone by the local bank manager in Julia Creek could make decisions to help local producers get through tough times. “But they don’t have that decision in Julia Creek any more, the decision is made in Sydney by the APRA guidelines.”
When asked why Labor and the LNP did not support his bill, Mr Katter said they fundamentally did not believe in government intervention.
“They say, that’s the commercial realm, government shouldn’t intervene,” he said.
“That might be right in some cases but that’s not a reason not to do it.”
Mr Katter said the economic principle of non-intervention was “blind economy zealotry”.
He said he would work to get more numbers in the next parliament where he said, “we’ll force them again”.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
