Media Release

KAP Leader and the Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter MP is a minority voice in Federal Government, offering a practical solution for the Rural Debt crisis facing rural Australia instead of the ineffective concessional loans being rolled out by Government.

Mr Katter introduced into Parliament the Reserve Bank Amendment (Australian Reconstruction and Development Board or ARDB) Bill 2013 to ensure the sustainability of Australian agriculture, by taking over eligible bad debt from commercial banks at discounted value and offering farmers refinancing at interest rates lower than commercial lenders.

“The plight of our farmers is very real – rural debt has increased by 17 per cent since a rural debt survey was conducted in 2009.

"Rural debt in Australia stood at $66b and rising, with inescapable bad debt estimated at $5b,” Mr Katter said.

“Our farmers are burdened with a constant worry and they can’t make a quid, meanwhile the Government has propped up interest rates and halved our incomes, all whilst a farmer is suiciding every two weeks,” Mr Katter said.

Mr Katter believes the current concessional loans solution is not effective and if you look at the figures provided by the Department of Agriculture for Queensland, you can see why; Number of applications received – 214, number of applications assessed – 200, number of applications approved – 80.

“Out of the $320m drought package issued by the LNP Government and the $420m issued by the ALP Government only $39.669m has been granted.

"There is an estimated 2500 farmers who have non-performing loans and are not meeting their interest repayments. The applications for the Concessional Loans are too restrictive.

"Only 214 farmers even bothered to make an application. The Government has been sitting on over $700m since the debt crisis meeting in 2012.

The suicide statistics should rest on their conscience,” Mr Katter said.

Mr Katter said the ARDB helped both banks and farmers – and would make money for taxpayers just like the Queensland Industry Development Corporation (QIDC), overseen by Mr Katter as a Qld Government Minister, which was later sold by the Borbidge Government for about $1 billion and then merged with Suncorp Bank.

“A reconstruction board is like a bank – it borrows money and it loans money. All the farmers have to do is apply to have their loans taken over. The banks then take a write-down of the at-risk debt and negotiate with the ARDB about what level of debt they will take on,” he said.

Mr Katter said the ARDB solidified long-term sustainability in Australian agriculture and protected hundreds of years of knowledge built by our nation’s food-producing men and women.

“To lose the technology and the know-how of these people is the loss of an asset that will take 30 years to rebuild,” Mr Katter warned.