Farm heroes join bank push | The West Australian

Brad ThompsonThe West Australian Two farmers hailed as heroes in the fight to save communities in the eastern Wheatbelt are in Canberra to back legislation seeking a radical banking solution

to Australia's rural debt crisis. Jeff Hooper and Scott Stirrat will join farmers from throughout the country today to support maverick MP Bob Katter's push for a

Commonwealth-backed reconstruction and development bank. The two mates formed the Muntadgin Farming Alliance and organised one of the biggest rural crisis meetings in WA history at Merredin

in April, where about 1000 people voted unanimously in favour of a return to the banking model that helped build Australian agriculture. Mr Katter said he would table a private member's

Bill to amend the Reserve Bank Act in response to the debt crisis and lending squeeze engulfing farmers throughout Australia. He admitted the Bill was unlikely to succeed but said his

Australian Party hoped to hold the balance of power in the Senate after the Federal election and would use that power to reform banking. Mr Katter said the bank would offer loans at one

percentage point above the reserve rate with the potential to offer even lower rates under a subsidy system. He said the banking model had operated successfully in the past and his

involvement with the State bank in Queensland saved the sugar cane industry without costing taxpayers a cent. "It will enable most of the wheat industry to come through alive so they

will still be there when the dollar comes down further and they are making good money again. What's happening now is that the farmers are vanishing," he said. "If this action

is not taken a small but significant part of the WA economy will vanish and towns in rural WA will become virtual ghost towns." Farm numbers in WA have been declining steadily and

Department of Agriculture and Food WA director general Rob Delane said last week that there was "inexorable pressure" on parts of the Wheatbelt. The Australian Bureau of

Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences estimates farm debt across Australia at $60 billion and some farmers are paying interest rates of 16 per cent. Two recent studies

commissioned by DAFWA have identified debt levels and access to capital as critical issues for WA farmers. Mr Hooper said farmers were bitterly disappointed by squabbling between the State

and Federal governments over a $60 million concessional loan package for WA. He urged the major parties to back the back legislation. rural rollcall 157 The number of farmers, in thousands,

in Australia in 2011 Source: 2011 census GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM THEWEST.COM.AU IN YOUR INBOX. Sign up for our emails