Fax from15/ 04/ 97 17: 28 Pg: 1
PRIME MINISTER
April 1997 TRANSCRIPT OF TrM PRIE MINISTER
THE RON JOHN HOWARD MP
ADDRESS TO LIBERAL PARTY DIVISION LUNCHEON
BRISBANE CONVENTION CENTRE
Well, thanks Bob-It's great to be in Queensland. You shouldn't be so shy. But Bob, to
you aad to your wifc and all the other members of the Queensland Division, can I say that
I always do enjoy coming to Brisbane. I came to Brisbane frequently in the various other
& uses I've had in politics and I've enjoyed coming to Queensland and to Brisbane since
becomeing Prime Minister. And today is the-fulfilment of yet another Coalition promise
and that was to take the Cabinet of Australia away from Canberra Sydncy and
Mclboune. And to take the Cabinet of Australia around Australia, and thereby to chive
home the point that we were elected to govern for all of the Australian people and not just
for the people who dwell in Canberra or Sydney or Melbourne. I can assure you that over
the re= two years and beyond there will be regular Cabinet meetings in the mainland
capitals of Australia and also regular Cabinet meetings in major provincial ccntres.
We've already haed one or two provincial Cabinet meetings and there will be more to
come over the cours of the next two years. And these exerises are not token exerrcises
they arc a demonstration of the genuine commitment by the government to take the
deliberations and the processes of government around the couutry. There is not the
slightest doubt in my rnind that the more time we spend on the road, the more time we
spend out of the Federal capital, the more timne we spend out of the two major
metropolises of Australia, t greater will be our wuderstanding and the beter will be our
knowledge of what the mainatreamn of the community really wants.
Queensland of cour~ se was a marvelous Stae fbT us polirleally at the last election. The
two party prefettd vote the Coalition received in March of Last yeAr in the State of
Qeensland has not been beted inany State in a federul ceecion sin= e Federation. And
I wan to thank my colleaguts from Queensland. Many of them arc heme today, and your
efforts were not in " aim You have sent some very energtic, very artciodae, very
vigorous and very plain speakng people from Qfeensand. Nothing shy about them in
the party room I can assure you. They always tell you what you're not doing for
Queenad. A eharactezistie to which I have becom accustomed over the years froln
Fax from 15/ 84/ 97 17: 28 Pg: 2
people in the parliamentary parr and also in the oxganisation. But that is how it should
be. Because Queensland is different, and Queensland bas particular characteristics.
Queensland has a partirular con~ tribution to make to the future of our nation. And whilst
and foremaost we are all united as Austrolians in the pursuit of common goals, as you
go around our country you must accept and understand some of the regional variations
and differencecs. And I understand the particular challenges, I know that the recestsion in
some rects4 affectcd Queensland at a different time than it did the reat of Australia. I
know the impact of the housing downturn on the Queensland economy of a few years
ago. An I also know the importance of resolving the uncertainty surrounding Native
Title, something to which I will come to in a moment.
But! I thank your President for the comments that he made about some of the particular
challenges facing the Government. It is true that small business in Australia has been.
doing it very hard over the last few years. I am very conscious of that. Small business
was badly mauled by the high interest rates of the recession. And small business paid
very heavily far the stupid. intrusive industrial relations policies of the former
government. And I'm delighted that we were able to get our industrial relations
Legislation through. And in case somebody mnissed it, can. I remind you that in the small
business package I announced a few weeks ago, we went even further than we had gone
in the industrial relations bill in the area of unfair dismissals. And I said that the federal
law would be amended so that any small business in Australia employing fewer than
people, and under the existing law that is as far as we can go at the moment, would be
free of any unfair dismissal restriction s of any kind in relation to any person employed for
a lesser period than 12 months. In other words, any small firm under a federal award
anywhere in Australia could take an employee on on 12 months probation, and if it
doesn't work out that person, without any let ot hindrance could be let go. Now that
particular reform, will be of enormous benefit to small business if it is extended not only
to business operating under federal awards but also to businesses under State: awards.
And I've already had a personal discussion with the Queensland Minister for Industrial
Rebmtons, Santo Santoro, who is with us today and I know he shares my desire to extend
that law to firms operating under Queensland law and I know that everybody in this room
will encourage him to do so.
I know tha there are some in the community who say that he should have gone further in
some areas, and I know that there arm some in the community who have criticised the
pace of reform. and change over the Lagt 12 months, arnd I want to say a few words about
that. I've been in politics a very long time. I'm a realist. And I understand that the
euphoria of a huge election victory has to be matched by performance. You can't live by
rhetoric alone in politics, you've got to deliver. And I want to go back over the last 12
months fbr a moment or two and remind you of what has been done in those ares where
we've promised action. We did prondse ourselves and promise the Australian
community that we would change our outdated industrial relatiorw legislation. Now we
wcere't able to go quite as far as we wianted to go because we didn't have the numbers in
the Senate. And it's an unfoitumate problem with our electoral system that because we
have as a result of changes made in 1923, because we have a padamnr a Senote tam 2
Fax from 15/ 04/ 97 17: 28 Pg: 3
retires an even number of senators every three years, it's virtually mtathemnaficaly
impoisible to get a majority in the Senac in a half Senate election. So we've had to rely
on the support of minor parties and independents to get our legislation through. And as a
result of the very skilful negotiations of Peter Reith we were able to get substantially all
of our industrial relations legislation through. But it was six or nine months later thanz we
would have liked and it is only now starting to come into operation. And it will be some
time before the benefits of that arm really enjoyed and really understood and realised.
And I ask people to accept and to understand that.
We promised action in relation to small business and in trmsis of the actual commitments
we made to small business it is fair to say that we have delivered beyond the
comxniments we muade. I'm not saying that everybody is feeling the benefit. And I'm
not saying that every small business in Australia has reason at the present time to think
it's living in good conditions, because clearly it do=* nt. But lets take an area such as
capital gains tax. We promised some rail over relief for capital gains. From the first of
July any small business operator anywhere in Australia will be able to sell a small
business and to invest the proceeds of that sale up to an amount of $ 5 Million in any
busincss, not a business of a like kinid, in other words you can go from a newsagency into
a computer software business, and you'll be able to invest up to $ 5 million without
having any liability at all or capital gains tax Now that represents, ladies and gentlemen,
that does represent us having taken that decision beyond what we promised at dhe time of
the last election. We have also implemetnted most of the Bell Committee
recommendations in relation to red tape. We have introduced remedial measures in
relation to fringe benefits tax. If you have firinge benefits of less than $ 5,000 a year, then
you are no longer required to keep records providing you keep paying the amount of
fringe benefits tax levied on those finge benefits. We have also made some particular
exemptions in relation to car parking and taxi travel. We have also simplified the
procedures for small business dcaliag with governments. We implemented our
commitruents irt relation to provisional tax relief. I mention these things ladies and
gentlemr-n to remind you of what has been done, but also its a token of our continued
determination to bring out and effect reforms that are important to small business.
And we want to improve the climate for small busines for two reasons. Firs and
foremost because it is the heart and soul of the Liberal ethic, indeed of the National Party
ethic, to help and promote smoall business in the Australian community. SmaLl business is
the engine room of economic growth. And as I travelled throughout China recently I was
riot only reminded of the great opportunities that exist for large Australian companies in
that huge nation, but I was also reminded of the opportunities for = mUl business. Azd the
oppotnnities for niche exporters in Australia into the Asia-Pacific region are immne
ond they are growing all t tizne. And the. communicatons revolution has empowered
smallbusiness not only in Australia, but toughout the world, irna way that you wooldn't
havw thought possible a few years ago. So we have a strong belie in the c= Wka
imprtaceand role of small business iu our coimmity. We also have an unshakeable
belief tha the only way in which we are going to achieve a lasting reduction in
Fax from 15/ 04/ 97 17: 28 Pg: 4
unemployment, particularly amongst the young, is to get small business going far more
actively and energetically thin it is at present.
So I x-ould say ladies and gentlemen, yes I know that small business is stiU doing it
tough. I know the burden small bu. siness carres. You will never hear pass my lips
remarks such as " what = i you going on about? You've never had it so good". As was
the siock response of my predecessor when small business men and women complained.
I lmow you've had it Yough, I understand that. We have implemented our commitments.
We continue to have our eyes fixed on fur-ther measures to help anid improve the climate
for small business.
And, Crs not only in thc economic area that we have delivered very strongly, we've also of
course delivered very strongly in areas such as the environxnent. Fortunately we were
able to scur the Senate's support for the one-third sale of Telsrra. I find it strange that
peopic still criticise the fact that we worked with the independents to get the Teistra
legislation through the Parliament. There was nothing dishonourable about that. We had
actually told the Australian people before the election what we were doing in relation to
Teistra. We had a mandate to sell one-third of Teistra. And we had a mandate to use a
billon dollars of the proceeds of that sale to establish the Natural Heritage Trust And I
find This suggestion in areas of the press and from our political opponents that in some
way it was sort of wr-ong to actually deliver through the Parliament, with the support of
tho numbers ia the Parliament what you actually promised the Australian people to do, a
very curious piece of political analysis. And 1 Eun very proud of the fact tbat come the
next clction I will be able to say on behalf of the Liberal and National Parties of
Australia, that we have established the largest capital fund for investment in the
environmental fututo of this country that any government has established since the end of
World War 11. And I won't be reluctant to tell the Australian community at the time of
the election that we established that fund for the benefit of the Australian envitrnent in
the teeth of ferocious opposition from both the Australiani Labor P~ arty and the Australian
Democrats. But it is true and it should never be forgott, that we did inherit a very large deficit, a
very large budget deficit. On an underlying basis it was revealed a few months ago that
the true deficit that we inherited was in the order of S10-l 11 billion.-Now people can say
that incoming governments always say that they inherit deficits. Whether that is the case
or noL, nothing can alter the fact that we did have that enormous fiscal challenge. And as
a result of the decisions thad were takeen in the flrnt budget that Peter Costello brought
down and delivered with such skil in Augus of last yeaw, we have broken the back of the
fiscal challenge that we inherited in March of Last year. That doesn't mean that this
yer'sudget is going tobe ey, oris going tobe slack. We stilhavea tough task
ahead of But we broke the back of the fiscal challenge last year as a resul of the
measu that we were able to take and as a direct consequence of that we created the
climate for lower interst ratms
Fax from 15/ 64/ 97 17: 28 Pg:
There have been imnprovements on the interest rate front. I know they haven't flowed
through as well to the small business sector as they have in the housing sector and there's
a very good reason for that. There's mome competition in the housing sector. And when
the Wallis Committee report was released last week we made it very plain that we wanted
more competition in the banking industry. And the thrust of that report is towards the
thru~ st of the goverrnent policy is towards more compctition. And certainly both Peter
andi I have rnedc it clear to the trading banks of Australia that we want to sce morc
competition and a bente deal for the small businesses of Australia from the Australian
banking system.
I have said to many small business men and women, thae if you have the sort of
conditions of competition in the small business lending area that organisations like
Aussie Home Loans and RAM have provided for the banks in the housing area, you
would have a cheaper flow of funds into the small business commaunity th= at the present
trme. And I think it's very important that be said. So the fiscal challenge this year,
although significant, will not be as great as it was last yewr. But providing a reduced
budget deficit, continuing to provide fiscal consolidation, all of that buids international
confidence in Australia. All of that builds the right climakte for lower inflation and lower
interest rates. And ever one of you in business in this room know damn well that your
best friends are really lower interest rates, stable economic conditions, and economic
predictability. And the first responsibility of any government that really believes in the
business community, really believes in the private sector, is to provide those conditions.
In his remnarks thr. State President quite properly referred to the uncertainty over Native
Title. Caa I say to you that that issue is of immense concern to me and to my
Government. I have no problem with the coucept of Native Title. I had no particular
problem with the decision of the High Court of Australia in the Mabo decision-I bad a
lot of problems with the Native Title Act that was enacted by the Kceating Government
with the support of the Australian Democrats and the Australian Greens.
Arid for the sake of the record may I remind you that in 1993 the Liberal and National
parties voted against the present Nrauive Title Act, so when quite correctly you rail against
the failure of the Native Title Act to give certainty. when you throw up your hands in
despair about the disgraceful saga of Century Zinc, which has taken an inordinaiely long
time-, when many of you would have read with dismay the letter written by the former
Governor General and a former leader of the Australian Labor Party Mr Hayden, to the
Queensland Prcmier, you will wionder why it was tWa an Austwaian Parliament should
ever have enacted such a confused law, I ask you to remember that th~ e wasn't one
person in the Libera and National party who voted for the law in that form. Now, I want
to make tha clear bcause occasionally in the heat of thes orts of debates it is forgotten,
that the law in its present form, was something that we Mnherted anid it was acted in the
face of our fierce criticism and opposition not to the principle of Native Title butt to the
way in which the Keating Goverment implementd tha pmniple and the way in which
the Keating Govenrnmnt gave to Native Title holders rights of veto which are not
available to title holders of any other description under the land law of Australia.
Fax from 15/ 04/ 97 17: 28 Pg: 6
That is why in the lead up to the lat election I said that we were going to make changes
to the Notive Title Act. Now, I operated as most people in Australia did in the belief that
the grat of a valid pastoral Icase would extinguish Native Title, because That was
contained in the recitals to the Nattve Title Ac: t. It was contained in the former Prime
Mini'sters second reading speech, it was acknowledged by leaders of the Aboriginal
coinmuniry and it was acknowledged by leadens of other organisations, and I have to say
iliaE it vas quite surprising to me that the High Court in the Wik Case found otherwvise.
And on that point can I say very simply that there see= s to be a very confuised view in the
Australian commuunity at the present time in the minds of some about the respectivc role
of the judiciary and the role of the legislature and the executive. I am a staunch believer
in the separation of powers. I believe in the rule of law, and as a citizen of Australia I am
as subject to that rule of law as any other man or worman. 1 believe in judicial
indiependence. I believe in the security of tenure of judges appointed to courts within
Australia, and I accept that it is the role and the right of the judges of Australia to
interpret the law of Australia as it presently stands. But I equally assert the undoubted,
unqualified, unatrbiguous rights of the Parliaments of Australia to alter the law of
Australia if they think that is in the national interest.
I mention, that ladies and gentlemenc because of same strange interpretations that have
been placed by sections of the media on the declaration made by the judges yesterday.
There has never been anything wrong in any citizen of Australia inl disagreeing with or
criticising a judgment of a court. That has happened for time immemorial, it has always
happened under the anglo-Aiustralian legal system and it always ought to happen. But
wbAt is wrong of course if far parliament or the executive to try and influence particular
decisions or to unreasonably or improperly attack the integrity of judges or the
applicarion of those judges to the task before them arnd there's certainly been no
suggestion by my Government and there never will be that any such criticism is
warranted. I respect the separation of powers but I will always assert the role and the
right of both the executive and the legislature.
But that my friends is a bit of a diversion, but a n~ ecesary one from what I was saying
about Wik. I know it is a difficult issue and when the decision was brought down in
December of this year, I studied it like everybody else and I convened a meeting of all the
Premiers of Australia, including my friend arid colleague Rob Borbidge, the Premier of
Queensland. and I said to the Preiierg that I had two goals that I would work towards
achieving them I hoped by the common agreement of all parties anid those two goals
ware to respec the concept of Native Title but to deliver to the pastoralists of Australia
and the atining industry of Australia, a degre of predictability iod certinty to which I
believe thy are entlid And they remain my goals and I am workting very hard to
achieve them. My patience is not endless, it is nor inexhustble. I bowe spent a lot of
time already in discussions with the various patties and I am talking to my Cabinet
colleapme about the issu at tis very moment as we meet here in Queensland. I will go
Fax fromv 15/ 04/ 97 17: 28 Pg: 7
on trying to find common ground if that is possible, but if at the enid of the day it is not
possible, then we w. ill decide on a particular covaxse of action.
Buat I want to make it very clear to the farmers of Austalia as f've said in the past, I won't
let you down. I've made it very clear ini the past that I respect the contribution of the
farners a-ad the pastoraists of ths country. I know the diffcult timnes that They have been
through. I know the burden, they've had to catty, I know the contribution that they make
to the grogt export earnings of this nation of ours and I can certainly assure them that I am
not going to sell them short, I'm not going to sell them out, I'm not going to let them
down. And I know that they and you would hope that if it is possible to find a common
ground. if it is possible to find an accommodation of all parties behind a practical
response to the this challenge, this unexpected challenge thrown up by a decision which I
didn't expect anid I don't think anyone else expected then I think all of you would agree
that it is my responsibility as Prime Minister, my responsibility in relation to all of the
Australian people to go that extra yard in order to try and see if we can reach that
commhlon grounld. I don't think it is going to be very easy. I have no false illusions but it
is my responsibility to all of the Australian people to cndeavour to do that.
Can I just say one other thing ladies and gentlemen, and that is that one of the many
things tha I committed myself to when I became Prime Minister in March of last year
was to remadn in touch with the Australian people, to not imnagine that I had been elected
Prime Minister because of some sort of inspired belief on behalf of the mnajory of the
Australian people that uniquely I had all of the answers and that nobody else had a
legitimate alterative point of view. And what I've tried to do over the iast year is to
remain in touch with the Australian people is to listen to them and in particular I've tred
very hard to keep in touch with the business commnunity of Austraiai
The Liberal Party is an independent party, the National Party is an independent party-
Neither of the Coalition parties is owned by any section of the Australian community.
The Labor Party is owned by the trade union movement and the politicaly correct
chattering classes. I don't know who owns the Austaliian Democrats but I can assure you
that we are not owned by anybody. We might have close links with the business
community but from time to time we do things that some people in the business
community don't like. I know that. I mean, I think there may be one or two people in
this room who've been mildly critical of the decision we took in the budget last year
about the superannuation surcharge. N'ow, I'm sorry about that but I think it is better for
me o mention it and it is better for me to acknowledge the fact that I am aware: char you
are unhappy about it and to epan briefly why we did it then to sort of pretend that I amn
not aware that you arc aware that you arm unhappy with it, and that is why I've raised it.
Now we brought dow a budget las yea that got nine-and-a-half out of ten in the
Australian commuznity for fairnes anid balance ad one of the number of reasons why it
got nine-and-a-half out of ten in the community for fairmes and balm=~ was that they
thought we had invited all sections of the Australian commnunity to make a bit of a
conribution to eclving the problem and I'd like you to see that particula decision in that
Fax from15/ 04/ 97 17: 28 Pg: 8
context. I'd like you to see it as not a decision that we enjoyed taking but a decision we
believ-. d ought to have been taken in the interests of balance and fairness, and I've had a
lot of criticism of it and nonie of that criticism Wny~ e t indicated to me a superior way of
irnplernenting the decision without having some deleterious impact an the revenue that is
to be gathered from that particular decision.
I wanted to mention that because I know there's been some criticism and because I
waned you to 1now tha I'm a person who listens to and recives and is willing to
respond to criticism and I wanted you to understand the context of fairness in which that
particul1ar decision was taken in which I would like it to be judged. But I have
enaeavourcd, and all of my colleagues have enideavoured to keep contiact -with the
business community, rnot because of any sense of direct obligation but because our goals
are essentially your goals, despite the fact that we are a free standing independent
political movement reprumenting all Australians, we are at heat people who believe in the
private enterprise system.
We do believe in a smaller Governmtent sector, we believe in a strong Government sector,
doing the things Governments ought to do like having a more efficient defence force and
having a defence force that spends more money on training and weaponry and getting
ready in case they arc needed than on bureaucrats in Canberra. We are a Goverrnent that
believes strongly in small business, we are a Government that believes very strongly in
private effort and of course very passionately in the rights of private property ownership
for all Ausiralians irrespective of their position in life. So I have tried over the tast year
to retain thud contact with the business community of AustzmIa and particularly of course
with the business community here in Brisbane and I want to say thW the links through the
Party organisation are very important. I think we have made a good start I think in
many areas we have delivered beyond what we said. I know in some areas people might
have wanted us to have gone further and a bit faster. Can I assure you that none of us has
lost the zeal or the commitment or the enthusiasmn for further reformis. I thinok good
Governent is about providing a sense of reassurance; a sanme of purpose. a sense of
hope; from time to time providing a few surprises, surprises of the pleasant variety rather
than the unpleasant variety and all the time remindig itself that its obligation is not to
govern for the self interest of individual members of Parliament but to govern for the
greater good for the Australian comnity.
We had a slogan at the last electon called ' For all of Us' and I have endeavoured to
govern for all of us. We are a group of men and women who worry very much about tU
views of mainstrem Australia. We don't believ that Govarments' sbould ignore
minorities but we strongly believe that Governments. shouldn't be driven by minorities
and it has been very much our conc= r and our goal to govern fbi the minstreamn of te
Australian cornmunity.
I want to say thak you to 0l of you for the support that you have given to the Pmry
particularly during its difficult yewr out of office both federally and Stae. The fiends
you have when you ame out of office are the tru friencs. I want to dvink you fo~ r the
FaxF an15/ 04/ 97 17: 28 Pg: 9
support that you've continued to give us, your support for bring here today and the role
all of you played in the magnificent Coalition win in March of last year here in
Queensland, and finally I want to say to you that I'll keep faith, I'll keep couch. I'll listen,
I'll respond to criticism, I1T occasionally disagree with you as you will with me,. but you
will always know tha fundamentally the goals and aspirations you have about your
businesses and about your families and about the filare of your STat and the future of
our nation are goals that we overwhelmingly share very much in common with you.
Thank you.