Newsroom

December 9, 2025

KAP Kennedy MP Bob Katter has laid down the gauntlet, challenging the Australian Government to follow the U.S.’s lead and provide policies and assistance that support Australian farmers.

This follows a bold step by U.S. President Donald Trump in “throwing the full weight of government behind his farmers” with a US$12 billion agriculture support package.

Mr Katter said Trump’s actions prove what real nation-building leadership looks like, contrasting it with the decades-long decline of Australian agriculture under deregulation, foreign ownership, and political neglect.

“Donald Trump honours and reveres his farmers. Napoleon himself said agriculture is the backbone of any nation. He understood it, and clearly so does Trump,” Mr Katter said.

“Meanwhile in Australia, we’ve crippled our farmers—stripping them of market and income protection, overwhelming them with layers of ‘environmental’ red tape, and handing our most productive agribusinesses to foreign corporations.”

Mr Katter outlined the systematic dismantling of Australia’s major rural industries since the 1990s.

“Wool was Australia’s largest export earner in 1990 (worth around $20 billion in today’s money),” Mr Katter said.

“Paul Keating deregulated the industry, abolished the marketing arrangements, and 171 million sheep became three million. Congratulations, Paul Keating.”

“The beef cattle numbers are down from 32.5 million head to around 27.8 million, with a growing share pushed into live export.

“Where we once received over $4,000 in value per processed ox (meat, leather, tallow, fertiliser), now we get about $1,500. How is this defending Australian industry?”

Mr Katter said that sugar and dairy were both victims of the “free market fantasy” that has gutted Australian agriculture.

“Every mill in Queensland was once farmer-owned. Now, out of 23 mills, not one is Australian-owned except the two remaining in NSW.

“We once earned $1.8 billion a year in dairy exports. Today it’s about $200 million. We import the rest while our farmers walk away from the dairy sheds.

“Fruit and vegetable imports have gone from negligible to over 30%. Seafood has gone from 90% Australian product to 25%. What on earth do we even produce anymore?”

“We have tens of thousands of farmers, but only two buyers. And yet the major parties bleat the words ‘free market’ like it’s some magic spell.”

Mr Katter said nearly all beef processing in Australia is now foreign-owned, just one example of a pattern repeated across agriculture, energy, and manufacturing.

“Our governments—Liberal, Labor, Nationals, LNP—have all acted as puppets for multinational corporations and unions chasing site-coverage deals. They’ve sold the country out in the process. Congratulations, you’ve destroyed your own nation.”

He also warned of national vulnerability:

“We don’t make cars. We don’t refine oil. We hardly manufacture anything. We haven’t built a meaningful dam in 23 years. One wharf strike, a hiccup in the Middle East, or an embargo from China, and Australia goes hungry. Do you live in such a closeted world that you can’t see it?”

Mr Katter noted that there is a growing “Gumtree Movement”—Australians demanding a return to Australia-first, patriotic, nation-building governments that lay the foundations for prosperity and economic growth.

“This is a statement from the Gumtrees: we are coming for you. Give us the power and we will build the dams, restore manufacturing, refine our own oil, and revive the factories that once made our textiles, building materials, pipes, and vehicles.

“We will restore farmers’ right to arbitration, reinstate marketing boards, and end the insanity of calling a two-buyer market ‘free’.”

Mr Katter concluded that the Trump administration’s investment in agriculture should serve as a wake-up call.

“Trump showed the world what it looks like when a government defends its farmers. Australia once did the same. We must do it again, or we will be left on the scrap heap.”