PRIME MINISTER
11 October 1996 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. JOHN HOWARD MP
SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF THE CSR FIBRE CEMENT FACTORY
WETHERILL PARK, SYDNEY
E& OE
Thank you very much Alan Coates, to Geoff Kells, the other directors of C SR, ladies and
gentlemen. I am delighted to be here today to be associated with this very large
investment of a great Australian company, the opening of a new plant that will directly
bring forth a product which is integral to one of the great industries of Australia, the
construction industry and the housing industry, and it's an opportunity to say a few words
about the importance of investment to the future of Australia. It's an opportunity to
congratulate CSR on its commitment of these resources, the generation of jobs for
Australians in Australia which a plant such as this symbolises. And it is in a world
environment of increasing globalisation and the increasing capacity of firms to move
activities offshore, and understandably so when the economic environment in other parts
of the world is so enticing and so competitive, it is an appropriate thing for the Prime
Minister of Australia to thank and congratulate CSR for the commitment it is making to
Australia and to providing job opportunities for Australians, and also to remark upon the
improving climate for investment in Australia.
We do have an environment which is accommodating to investment. We do have low
interest rates compared with a year ago. We have a low rate of inflation. We have, apart
from the odd glitch here or there, I think a very benign industrial relations climate and I
believe it could be made even better when the Government's Workplace Relations Bill
passes through the Federal Parliament and I congratulate CSR on the way in which it has
gone about democratising its own work force and the idea of involving all the employees
of an enterprise in the future of the enterprise, and removing the ancient divisions of
" them and us" is something for which this company is to be congratulated.
The housing and construction industry have always been important to Australia. The level
of home ownership in Australia is the highest in the western world. It was one of the great
post war achievements of Australia that we were able to drive our level of home
ownership in the 1950s to over 70%, and although it perhaps may be a touch below that
now, over the years it has retained a very close relationship to that figure, and home
ownership has always been very much at the heart of the Australian way of life. The
prospects for the housing industry I believe are improving. The interest rate reductions of
recent months brought about in no small measure as a result of greater competition in the
banking industry I hope bode well for the fluture of the housing industry and I hope they
bode particularly well for the future of the dwelling construction industry because the
product of this new fibre cement plant will feed very, very directly into that activity.
So for all of those reasons, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be here today. It's a
pleasure to be associated with a new venture. It's a pleasure as Alan Coates said to be
associated with the opening of a plant, the expansion of opportunities, the commitment of
resources to the future of Australia and to the future of a great Australian industry. Can I
also say, on a personal note, I like the fact that I'm associated with a new investment at
CSR. In its old manifestation, CSR of course was associated with sugar. I think I
disclosed to Geoff Kells at a meeting we were at some months ago that your company
gave my father many, many, many years ago his first job. He was an apprentice fitter and
turner at the Harwood sugar mill in the northern rivers area of New South Wales and after
he went to the First World War in 1916, he returned and completed hi s training as a fitter
and turner at Pyrmont, the Pyrmont plant owned by the CSR company. So I have a
nostalgic personal family affection for your great company and how it's changed and
grown and diversified and been a living example of the change and the diversification and
the development and the growth in the future optimism of our country over all of those
years. So, Alan and Geoff, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for asking me. I wish this plant well,
I wish happiness and prosperity to all who own it and work in it and I think it's a
contribution to a confident future for a great industry by a great Australian company.
Thank you very much.
ends