Newsroom

July 9, 2025

FEDERAL Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter, has weighed in on President Donald Trump’s latest announcement of steep tariffs of 200% on pharmaceuticals and 50% on copper, warning that the decision underscores America’s bid to protect its industries - and highlights Australia’s dangerous failure to do the same.

“Trump’s protecting his industries from the uncontestable, government-backed mega-production coming out of China. Their factories aren’t built by the private sector - they’re built by the government, with government money, and they don’t need to service debt,” Mr Katter said.

“The Chinese government doesn’t throw money away on ego monuments and feel-good ‘net-zero’ whims. It builds factories that produce things, freeways and tunnels that create wealth and economic generation. That money, in turn, produces value. It’s deflationary, not inflationary.

“The Australin Government, on the other hand, have obliterated our production sector in favour of ideology and self-indulgence.”

Mr Katter said there were no domestic industries left that could compete on a global stage - except beef, grain, and mining (not processing) – and warned that places like Mount Isa, home to a major copper smelter, were in the firing line if trade conditions deteriorated further.

“You can’t expect a 25,000 mega-tonne refinery in Australia to compete with a 250,000 mega-tonne refinery in China. And yet our response has been to party on, strangling our industries and primary producers with over-regulation and skip down a net-zero path without caring about whether the money comes from. This had led us to become a net importer of nearly all our food, manufactured goods and fuel.”

“We are one of the most resource rich countries in the world, yet we are fast becoming an economic backet case. It’s economic insanity.”

He continued:

“A billion people go to bed hungry every night—and we in Northern Australia could feed half a billion of them, if the government got out of the way and stopped treating our industries like a nuisance.”

Mr Katter also took aim at the Federal Government’s trade policy, warning that Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ recent economic optimism was “delusional at best.” Katter reserved some of his strongest criticism for Foreign Minister Penny Wong, saying Australia’s relationship with the U.S. was already frayed—and that her approach to China was “worse than naïve.”

“She’s got us surrounded. Chinese warships circle us like crows around a carcass, and we call that diplomacy.”

Mr Katter said his party, along with other regional crossbenchers, would soon be pitching an ‘Omnibus Bill’ to reshape Australia’s economy and re-establish essential industries.

“This delusion must stop. Australia must follow America’s lead and start protecting our own industries, primary producers and manufacturers.”

Photo credit: Cameron Laird.