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PRIME MINISTER
October 1996 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. JOHN HOWARD, MP
ADDRESS TO LIBERAL PARTY FEDERAL COUNCIL
WREST POINT HOTEL CASINO, HOBART, TASMANIA
E O E
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen for that very warm welcome. Before I
commence my address to this Federal Council I am sure that there's somebody here who
you would like to greet and that is the re-elected the Federal Member for Lindsay, Jackie
Kelly. Tony Staley, Tony Rundle, the Premier of Tasmania, my other Federal and State
Parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. It is an enormous privilege for me to
stand before you today as the first Liberal Prime , Minister in 14 years, addressing a
Federal Council Meeting of the most successful political party since Federation. When
yesterday we received Andrew Robb's report on the campaign it ended with an excerpt
from the acceptance speech that I delivered at the wentworth IHlotel in Sydney on the
second of March and in that speech I committed myself and my Government to the
service of all of the people of Australia. And as I look back over the last seven-and-a-half
months, I can say to you ladies and gentlemen thai we have stayed true to the values,
principles and the policies that we took to the Australian people in the election. And over
the past seven-and-a-half months there has not only been a change in policy, there has
also been a change in the style of the Government of this country. No longer do we have
a Government that responds to the loudest clamour f the noisiest minority, no longer do
Fax from we have a Government that is so arrogant it can never say sorry, or never say that it was
wrong, no longer do we have a Governmnt that is remnote and out of touch with the
aspirations and the hopes and indeed the dreams of the mainstream of the Australian
community. Over the last seven-and-a-half months we have begun the task of addressing those aspects
of the Australian economy that need change and reform. We delivered what I believe was
the best Federal Budget in close to two decades. It was a Budget that was both strong and
fair. It was a Budget that delivered the core commitments of the Coalition taken to the
election. Tt was a Budget that goes greatly to the credit of the man who delivered it, the
Deputy Leader of the Party, Peter Costello, and the Federal Treasurer.
We also have in place a group of men and women who kfin to the Govcmnment of this
country great skills and great ability. I am imensely proud of what my team has
achieved-I am immensely proud of the skills that so many of them have brought to the
job of governing Australia. I amn immensely proud of the fact that despite 13 years of
Opposition, we have brought together a very professional and effective Go0vernmnent. A
Government that retains the overwhelming respect of the Australian people. A
Government that has delivered for all of us on what we took to the election. I remaind you
that in the election campaign, we spoke extensively of our commitment to the Australian
family. We spoke extensively of our commitment to industrial relations reform-We
spoke of our commitment to the environment. We spoke of our commatnent to restoring
the strengths and tho vigour and the competitiveness of the Australian economy. We
spoke of our commnitnent to the small business sector of the Australian economy. And in
all of those areas, every single one of those areas, which wcrc the heart and soul of the
substance of the election campaign the battleground, the things that people had in the
minds when they voted for us -all of those things have been addressed. And if they
haven't been completely addressed and if they haven't been finally addressed it. is not
through a lack of will on the part of the Coalition Governent, it is the circumstace that
we do not control both Houses of Parliament. And that is a reality that we must grapple
with and we are doing it realistically. Whatever the size of our majority in the House of
Representatives, it remains a reality that we do not control the Senatc. Our supporters
must understand that, you must understand that and you must understand the -steps we
must take to deal with that reality. And we don't do it in a pig-headed arrogant fashion,
we do it in a realistic fashion.
over the past weeks Peter Reith has done a superb job as the Minister for Industrial
Relations, a key portfolio in a key area. And over the past few weeks and months, Peter
has as any quality Minister would do in that area, he's been patiently negotiating wit
those who hold the balance of power in the Senate. And he and I and members of the
Government remain hopeful that the legislation that for 10 years many of us have
advocated above any other single economic reform, we remain hopeful that legislation
can be passed into law. Because if this Government were through some circumstaces
only to be able to choose one economic reform to introduce during its first term of
Government unquestionably that economic reform would be to change Australia's old-
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Fax from -sfashioned,
outdated, uncompetitive, arthritic, industrial relations system. To sweep away
such things as Laurie Brereton's job destroying unfair dismissal law a law which has
done more to discourage men and women in small business around Australia from
employing Australians than any other legislative measure introduced by a Federal
Government over the last 20 years.
So ladies and gentlemen we have kept true, we have remained true, we have stayed true
to the issues that formed the focus of our election campaign. We took to the Australian
people upfront a commitment to invest $ 1 billion into an historic natural heritage trust of
Australia and out of that we would fund ongoing environmental works and environmental
projects. And we would find the wherewithall for that out of a sale of one-third of Telstra.
We made no bones about that. We didn't temporise, we didn't kid about that, we were
upfront about it. We didn't write to the members of the Telstra Union as my predecessor
had done in 1993 to the members of the Commonwealth Bank Employees Association
and promise that he wouldn't privatise we made it clear that we would sell a third of
Telstra. And we remain committed to that and it will be upon the heads of those who
might defeat the Telstra legislation if this nation is denied the greatest ever capital
investment in the environmental future of Australia, promised by any Government since
the end of the Second World War.
And the environmental measures that we have in mind are not the environmental
measures of those who academically fancy improvements in the environment They are
measures in practical, ongoing areas such as soil degradation, salinity, ocean outfall, river
pollution, landcare the sort of things that are needed to restore the sustainable base of
agriculture in this country. The sort of things that will enhance the clean, green image of
Australia not only in our region but throughout the world.
We have also of course delivered on our commitments to small business. There were few
issues about which I spoke more frequently in the election campaign than the importance
of small business in Australia. More and more Australians as the years go by will be
employed by small firms. The hope of reducing significantly unemployment, particularly
youth unemployment, lies in a revitalisation of the small business community of
Australia. It is the large firms who are reducing staff. We hope that we can create a
climate where a multiplicity of new small firms employing Australians come into
existence in increasing numbers. And we have taken a number of major steps already. We
changed the provisional tax uplift arrangements which have injected $ 160 million of
cashflow into small business. We've promised capital gains tax rollover relief from the
first of July next year. Within a few weeks, I'll have a report from the Small Business
Deregulation Task Force about ways and means of reducing red tape by 50 per cent on
small business during our first three years in Government. And of course no sector of the
Australian economy will benefit more than the small business sector from the reforms
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Fax from So ladies and gendlemen, as I look back over the past seven months, as I take you back to
that momentous and emnotional evening of the second of March 1996 an evening that
ended for many of us what had seemed like a long political nightmare of 13 year of loss,
13 years of frustration, 13 years of wondering whether again the Liberal Party of
Australia would summon the unity, the courage, the campaign skills and the application
and the commaitmient to become the Government of this country once again. And of
course history records that we did. History records that those, and there are many in this
room, who kept tbe faith through that ions political nightmare, who persevered with us,
like one of those magnificent people, who we gave an Award to last night who I
understand at one stage was the sole member of the Liberal Party in Toowoomba during
one of the darkest times for the Liberal Party in Queensland. It was really to people like
that that the victory on the second of March belonged because people like that had
retaied their faith and their commitment in the Liberal Party and the things to which the
Liberal Party has always stood. And what we are able to do with that victory was to
demonstrate that when it comes to effective, professional campaigning, the Liberal Party
is without peer. I don't say that Arrogantly or complacently but we need when we survey
such an historic achievement, we need to reflect upon what are our strengths. And we
need now that we are back in Government to begin treasuring toe heritage of our Party in
a way that perhaps we failed to do in the past. We need to honour the past greats of the
Liberal Party of Australia as well as to praise the present and to project forward to the
fuiture because the past seven and a half months has been a period of great activity and a
period of significant change and a period of consolidation. I've outlined the way in
which we have stayed mre to ihe commitmients that we took to the last election. But
those commitments were not restricted to the area of domestic policy, they also extended
into Lhe international arena. How pathetic, how petty, how ridiculous, the claim made
during the election campaign that our Asia Pacific neighbours and leaders would talk to
but not deal with a Coalition Governent. How ridiculous, how against the national
interest, the Australian national interest, such an absurd claimn sttinds. I have made it clear
on the two visits I've paid overseas, most particularly the visit to Japan and Indonesia, the
essential bipartisan continuity of many aspects of Australian foreign policy. When I was
in both of those Fountries I praised the contribution made by two former Labor Prime
Ministers to our relations with the nations in the region. I did that quite deliberately
because I do think in areas where there is common ground between the major political
forces of Australia we should identify that and then worry about our differences in areas
where there is not common ground. It has long been a bipartisan, given of Australian
foreign policy that our principle economic and strategic and political focus must be in the
Asian Pacific, region. In. 1957: 40 years ago next year, John McEwen as the Depulty
Prime Minister in a Coalition Government put down the findamernals of nur economic
relationship with Japan in the Australia-Japan Commerce Agreement. He did it against
the fierce opposition of the then Labor Party and the RSL. He did it at a CiLe when
forging an economic link with Japan was a far harder proposition than it is now. He did it
in 1957 and he showed courage and leadership and vision. And if you look at the
contribution of other Coalition people at the time, of Richard Casey as the then Minister
for External Affairs and die list could go on of' Percy Spender, his immediate
predecessor. They all played major roles in forging those links. And successive Prime
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Minsters of Australia Whitlamn in relation to China, Fraser in relation to China, Fraser
in relation to Indonesia, Hawkc i relation to APECJ Keating in relation to many of those
countries as well, they've all played a role. And it's in that tradition of looking to the
Australian national interest and not trying to find some cheap partisan political point
scoring difference that I have tried to bring a focus to our foreign relations. There's been
one difference that I have identified and that is that sometimes when I listen to the former
Government it sounded as though their policy was a region only policy, that somehow or
other you couldn't refurbish your relations wit nations such as the United Kingdom, the
rmat of Europe and the United States without in some way drawing back from our new
found relationships in the region. Now that of course is nonsense. It has never been
necessary for this nation and it never will be necessary for our nation to choose betwecn
her history and her geography when it comes to the making of Mrends abroad. We can
have them both, we will have tern both, and under this Covernment I'm sure that we can
build all of those relationships in a most productive and effective fashion. So it is not
only in the areas of domestic policy, but it is also in the area of our relatons with other
nations where there has been some changes and there has also been some essential
continuity. But another change that T believe that has occurred is in the way in which some aspects of
polities are conducted in this country. Some of it hasn't changed and some of it, given
the robust combative style of Australians, oughtn't to change either. Politics is about
difference as well as being about other things. And it's the job of political parties to
identify differences, to acknowledge similarities, but to identify differences and to
campaign on them.
I spoke when I addressed the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party of the way in
which in certain areas of debate the former Government had created a climate of
intimidation, a climate in which people were fightened to express views on certain
subjects. And I also reminded those in the audience on that occasion that robust debate in
free speech carried with it the obligation to speak in a tolerant and senisitive fashion.
One's obligations as a citizen are always a combination of freedoms and responsibilities.
No freedom is absolutely untrammrrelled, there must always be a balance between the
freedom to speak and say and act as one chooses, but also a respect for the rights, the
property, and the sensibilities of others.
And the last few weeks we've had a bit of a discussion about such things as immigration.
I think that's a good thing, not a bad thing. I think we should talk about difficult issues,
but we've got to talk about it in a sensitive and sensible fashion. Immigration has made
an enormous contribution to Australia. It's made an enormous contribution to the Liberal
Party. I might remlind you -we sometimes forget it thiat the first non-English speaking
member of the national parliament was a Liberal, Senator Misho Lajovic, and quite a long
time ago. It was the Liberal Party that put the first Asian born members of parliament
into the parliaments of this country. And I want to say that over the last 40 years, people
from all around the world have made a great contribution to this country. And the day
that I came back to the leadership of the Liberal Ponty, the 3 1st of January 1995, 1
Fax from identified a number of values that would guide and instruct the development of policy
under my leadership. And one of those values was a vision of an Australian nation
composed of people drawn from the four COrner of the world but united behind a
common sct of Australian values. And that remains both the history of this nation and
also the ideal of this nation. And it follows from that, that tolerance and respect for
difference, a respect for the rights of people no matter where they may have come from
once thuy are citizens of Australia is a core and important Liberal value.
Ladies and gentlemen, we had an exhilarating night last night, we really did. And I want
to say something about the Lindsay by-election. I first of all want to extend to you,
Jackie, our thanks and our gratitude for an absolutely mnagnificent campaign. I also want
to wxend my congratulations to Tony Nutt, the Director of the New South Wales
Division, and all of the others who worked so very hard in Lindsay. This was the first
by-election since the election of the Government and it's vcry important that we neither
get carried away in any surge of complacency and smugness arising out of the result, but
also we don't allow the spin doctors on the other side to so devalue the result and to so
create the impression that it was an entirely predictble, in-die-grove, unavoidable,
inevitable, -natural, how-could-you-think-otherwise outcome. I mean, around in the ether
is this suggestion that governm= ni~ when they're elected after long periods in opposition,
always win the first by-election that's held shortly after they were elected. Well, I seem
to rememnber a by-election in a place called Parraat which was held in September of
973 that was less than a year after the Whitlarn Governiment had been elected. And
Philip Ruddock knows the percentage swing even better than 1, but I think it was about
seven and a half per cent against the Whitlarn Government that had been elected. Now I
mention that, ladies and gentlemen, because 1 think it is important in the debate about the
trnplica~ unis of yesterday, it is important to preserve a sense of perspective-By-elections
do normally go against incumbent governents. The history of the seat of Lindsay is a
Labor history and no amount of attempts to rewrite political history can alter that fact.
We achieved an 11.5 per cent swing on the second of March and yesterday Jacie got
another 4.76 per cent.
Now theme are a few messages that come out of it. The first message of course is to us
don't get carried away with it. One of the great capacities of the Australian people, and
one that I will strive never to forget, is to level those in authority if they get too carried
away with themselves. It's one of the great protective devices of our psyche and of our
nation. It's one of the things that distinguishes us and it's one of thing$ we, I hope, never
lose the capacity to bring people down to earth and to remind them that this is, at the
end of the day, about the most egalitarian nation you cau find on earth and that is one of
its enduring strengths and I hope it always will be.
I think the second message that comes out of Lindsay is simply this: that the Australign
people made a fundamental decision on the second of March, They wanted to change the
Government. They wanted a new group of people to govern this country and they did it
loudly and clearly and they did everywhere in Australia. It wasn't confined to Sydney or
Tasmania or Western Australia, it was everywhere. It was about the m'ost comprehensive
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Fax from swing that you could possibly find, both numnerically and geographically. I mean, who
would have thought, if you listed all the great industrial and mining towns in centrecs of
Australia since federation, who would have thought that alter the second of March only
Newcastle and Wollongong continue to have Labor Party representatives. That towns
such as Mount Isa and Ipswich and Kalgoorlie and Whyalla and Port Pirie and Broken
Hill, all of tern are now represented by people other than the Australian Labor Party.
And that was a measure of the socially and geographically comprehensive character of
the victory that we won. So they said loudly and clearly, what a change!' And I think
one of the messages coming out of yesterday, loudLy and clearly is, we didn't make a
mistake, we wanted a change, and for those who would endeavour unreasonably to
frustrate that change, get out of the way and let the new crowd have a fair go. And if
alter a two or thre or whatever years we don't like what they're doing, then we'll do the
same thing to thiem as we did to the other mob. I couldn't see it in clearer terms. I think
it is fundamentally a question of that. And of course at a local level there was a great
determination on the part of the people of Lindsay to give a magnificent, energetic,
youthful candidate of the future and member of the future, a fair go.
So ladies and gentlemen, it was a very, vcry eciting result, Arid there are just two other
things that I want to say to you. The first of those is that amongst the many things that
we were asked to do on the second of March was to continue to properly address the need
for practical reform and change where change and reform is necessary. As you know,
I've always adopted a rather Burkeian view to institutions and practices in Ausfralia. If
something works well T'm reluctant to we it changed. If on the other band somethinrg is
clearly failing the national interest, then it is our responsibility to vigorously pursue
change. And in areas such as waterfront reformn, industrial reations; reform and all the
other areas of change and reform that are needed to make Australia a more competitive
nation, we: have a special responsibility to pursue them. And we have, if you like, a
renewed reminder from the Australian people that the job of a sensible, progressive
government is always a job of practical reform and practical change where that is
necessary. And my Government will be a government of practical reform and change,
particularly in areas that go to Australia's economic competitiveness. Our first Budget
was splendidly received. It was seen as the right Budget at the right time, addressing the
fundamental issues of debt and our current account deficit weakness. I mean, if we can
have the opportunity through the Parliament and elsewhere to build on that, then we can
discharge our mandate for practical reform-
The very last thing I want to say is to renew my comitment to oir commnon cause. As I
said to you last night, like so many in this room I joined the Liberal Party when I left
school. The Liberal Party has been my life ever since. I love the Liberal Party and
everything that I have achieved in public life has been due to the courtesy of the Liberal
Party. I would ncvcr have been a member of Parliament, a Cabinet minister, let alone
Parliamentary Leader, or the greatest honour of all, Time Minister, had it not been for the
Liberal Party. I will never tae it for granted. I will always treasure what it has done for
me, but more importantly, I will always honour what it. has done for AusLraiia. We
belong to a great political movement. It is not just a collection of people, although they
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t are fundamental to its success, it is a collection of values, it is a belief system about the
kind of society we want for ourselves, the kind of society we can have for Australia and
the kind of Australia in the world that we would like our nation to be in the next
millennium-Ladies and gentlemen, I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for the support that
you gave me over the last year. I want to particularly thank my wife, Janette, and my
three children who have been such an indispensible mainstay and continuum in all the
time that I've been in politics. It has been a great Federal Council. It was crowned by a
great victory last night, but in the nature of things we must address ourselves to the
future, we must guard against complacency, and above all we must remember that we
carry with us the trust of the Australian people and if we betray that trust, they will wreak
the same vengeance as they wreaked upon our predecessors fo-r their betrayal and trust,
and let us never forget that imperative of political life in Australia.
Thank you. 28/ 18/ 96 13: 87 Pg: 8