13 March 1997 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. JOHN HOWARD MP
SPEECH AT THE LAUNCH OF NATIONAL
FAMILY DAY, SYDNEY
E& OE
Thank you very much Mr Handbury, Mrs Zaetta, Mr Moriarty, your Grace, the
Archbishop of Sydney, Dr John Yu, the Director of the Westmead Children's Hospital,
my Parliamentary colleagues, Peter Collins, Kerry Chikarovski, Marlene Goldsmith,
other guests and everybody, ladies and gentlemen. Can I start by congratulating
Murdoch Magazines and in particular the magazine, Family Circle, for the initiative of
that organisation and that magazine in sponsoring the idea of inaugurating a National
Family Day in Australia.
It is a very important initiative and could I also compliment Telstra for its very heavy
involvement. Of course we all understand the natural symbiosis between Telstra and
teenage families. It's very powerful indeed and we're all very conscious of it and not
surprisingly, you ought to keep promoting National Family Day. You ought to have
several of them and then perhaps your competitors will have several of them, but
seriously, it is another demonstration of another very important strand in our society
and that is the greater willingness of larger business organisations to undertake a
philanthropic role in our society of putting something back into a society and a
community which commercially gives so much to many of our large organisations.
And I do acknowledge particularly the role of Murdoch Magazines and Telstra in
launching and certainly garnering the idea and launching this event which will be
celebrated for the first time in October of this year.
My own views and that of my Government about the importance of the family unit
within our society are very well known. Of course a commitment to the role of the
family in our community is not a matter of political contention. It's one of those things
that all political parties hold in common and all political parties are committed to. I
think it is fair to say that the shape of families has changed dramatically over the last
or 50 years, particularly over the last 20 or 30. But they're important to the
development of the human personality. Their value as a source, not only of emotional
but also of material support has not really altered although the way in which it is
expressed has changed over that period of time.
We naturally see our association and our bonds with our families in emotional,
personal terms but it's also fair to say that in welfare terms, and I have frequently said
this in the past and I will say it again, that a stable, functioning family represents the
best social welfare safety net that mankind has ever devised and no political philosophy
or no economic philosophy can replace the role of that family functioning effectively
and functioning in a supportive fashion. One of the very interesting influences on the
way in which the family has developed in the Australian community has been the
contribution of people of diverse ethnic backgrounds to the strengthening and the
development of family life in Australia. Many Australians of Asian, of Middle Eastern,
of Southern European descent have brought particular strengths to the texture of
Australian family life and the emphasis that so many within our community who
represent those diverse backgrounds, the emphasis they place on the importance of the
role of the family in Australian society is a source of very positive strengths and a
source of great nourishment to the overall impact of family life within our community.
The role of the Government in relation to families of course is not a prescriptive or a
determinant role. Rather it is the role of creating the circumstances of maximum
choice and maximum opportunity. We have made a number of changes to areas which
affect families which we believe are very beneficial. Our changes to the environment in
which people work have enabled in our view, will enable in our view as the changes
come into effect, will enable people to more effectively blend their work and their
family responsibilities. A survey carried out several years ago directed towards
Australian women produced four priority areas so far as women in Australia were
concerned and the one on the top of that list was how women could more effectively
combine their work and their family responsibilities and one of the values of more
flexibility in workplace relations is that you do enable people to find the combination
that best suits them. It's not for the Government to say that you shall work a
particular period of time at a set time or week. It is rather for the Government to
create an environment where you can work out with yourselves and your employer and
your family to the maximum extent possible, and I emphasise that as a realistic caution,
to the maximum extent possible, you work out the most effective combination of work
and family responsibilities.
Another issue of course that emerges very strongly from the emphasis that we place on
policies affecting the family is that we believe very strongly as a Government that the
arrangements that parents make for the care of their children and the combination of
full or part time parental care as distinct from paid childcare is a matter of individual
choice. There is no right or wrong pattern. The pattern for a family is the pattern that
best suits that family and once again, it is not the role of the Government to say which
should be the predominant pattern and it is a wholly unhealthy trend for there to be a
continuing debate within our community as to which is the right or the wrong way to
care for young children. The right way is the way that the parents of the children
decide the environment in which those children should be raised.
My Government has also placed additional resources into areas of parenting education.
We've also doubled the resources available to marriage and relationship counselling,
recognising in this area as in so many other areas the old maxim that prevention is
better than cure is one that ought to be observed as much as possible. Our Family Tax
Initiative, which commenced on the first of January gave expression to our desire to
give additional tax help to families with young children within certain income ranges
and so to emphasise the importance within our community of affording families the
maximum amount of choice possible.
But ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the day the family unit is not a accumulation of
tax benefits, an accumulation of industrial relations options or an accumulation of
passionately held economic or political views. The family unit is a source of love and
support, the group in our community from which most of us derived our principle
source of personal satisfaction, personal happiness and personal strengths. Families
come in different combinations. Not all families are happy. It's unrealistic to pretend
that they are. Some families break down. The role of society ought to be comforting
and assisting and also putting in place policies that minimise to the maximum extent
possible the extent to which families do break down. I think it is important in our
society that we emphasise in a very significant way as this National Day will, the
importance of the family unit within our community. It is striking as Mr Handbury said
in his introductory remarks that despite all the changes that have occurred over the last
or 30 years in our society and despite all of the negative talk about how deleterious
are the influences of change on the family unit within our community, when you ask
people what is the most important thing in their lives, most of them unerringly and
quickly and without qualification say my family is the most important thing I have.
And that is a very, very signalled message. It's something that reminds us that
although things have changed a great deal, there are some things that haven't changed
at all and the emotional importance that we place on the family unit is one of those
things that have not altered.
So may I say again in conclusion, to the Murdoch Magazines, to Telstra, and to those
who have organised this little gathering and this little launch, how delighted I am to be
here. The day will have the full support of my Government. I know it will have the
goodwill of both sides of politics in the Australian Parliament and I wish it every great
success and I know that the Australian community will recognise the importance of the
occasion and give it the support that it deserves.
Thank you very much.