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Thank you very much my Parliamentary colleague, Paul Marek, to Councillor
McRae the Mayor of Rockhampton, to Senator Ian Macdonald, to Vince
Lester, other councillors, other distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a tremendous delight for me to be here in Rockhampton, to be
visiting the electorate of Capricornia which Paul Marek won for the
Coalition and won for the National Party at the last election. And
I want in the few moments that I intend to speak to you today to share
a few thoughts with you about some issues that are very important,
not only to central Queensland, but also to our entire nation.
But before I do that, let me say that I had planned to come to Rockhampton
some time ago because I set myself a goal when I became Prime Minister
of making certain that I communicated very directly to the people
of rural and regional Australia that mine was not just a Government
that governs to the people of Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney but,
in fact, is a Government which governs people who live in the regional
and rural areas of Australia.
And can I say to you, my fellow Australians, that I am very conscious,
as Prime Minister, of the particular challenges, of the particular
concerns, of the particular needs of rural and regional Australia.
I know that many of you have lived by the produce of your land. I
know that this area of central Queensland boasts to us the great export
industries of Australia, the cattle industry and the coal industry.
I know the particular difficulties that the former industry is going
through. I know that this gathering of more than 500 Australians understand
probably better than any other gathering of 500 Australians anywhere
in our country just how much we are at the mercy of a fiercely competitive
world and no matter how efficient you are, no matter how productive
you are, if you live in a competitive world environment then you can
win or lose a market according to the vagaries of the weather and
according to the vagaries of international trade.
Now I don't come to you today as professing some kind of naive
belief that everything is easy for you. I understand the problems
of many of your industries and I am filled with admiration for the
stoic ways which many of you have survived through very hard times
and have continued to do so. But I am very mindful of the continuing
impact of drought, although in the last few days the faces of smiles
on that particular front. I am nonetheless very conscious of the impact
the drought has had on the livelihood and the lives and hopes and
the aspirations of many people in this hall.
Another reason why I wanted to come here was to pay tribute to your
Federal Parliamentary representative. Paul Marek has been an outstandingly
successful Federal representative for the seat of Capricornia over
the last two years. Paul has brought to his representation to the
electorate, he has brought an earthy understanding of the hopes and
the aspirations of the men and women of this area. He doesn't
come with what some people would call, a typical Coalition background.
He has a trade union background, and I am very proud that my Coalition
Government includes in its ranks people who have served as members
of trade unions and it's pretty relevant to a debate we are having
at a moment and I'll come to that just in jiff but, of course,
nothing will stop me from coming from it.
But ladies and gentlemen, what it demonstrates to you is that we are
a party for all Australians. We are a Coalition for all Australians.
We're not just a Coalition to pose for the lawyers and farmers
and doctors and business men and women and graziers and pastoralists.
We are a party, a coalition, the two parties, the Liberal Party and
the National Party who represent a broad cross-section of the Australian
community. And one of the proudest things that I was able to say on
the night of the 2nd of March 1996 when I knew that the people of
Australia had elected me as Prime Minister, was that I could go into
the Prime Minister's job beholden to no one special interest
or pressure group in Australia. I knew that I could go into the Prime
Ministership with a commitment to defer to the best of my ability
all of the people of Australia.
And unlike the Labor Party, which is still, and we are seeing it played
out very dramatically at the present time, still bound hand and foot
to the trade union movement, unable to articulate the national interest
when certain issues arise. I was able to go into the Lodge and become
the Prime Minister in this wonderful country of ours owing allegiance
to no one special group and having a special obligation to serve to
the best of my ability and that of my colleagues, all of the people
of Australia. And I remain very proud of the fact that we answer to
nobody other than to the collective of the people of Australia and
that will always be the approach that we take and it will always guide
the individual decisions that we make.
Ladies and gentlemen, Paul mentioned in the course of his introduction,
the financial measures that we have taken since we were elected in
March of last year. It is true that when we came into Government there
was an accumulated Federal Government debt of between $95 and $100
billion, and it was also true that we inherited an annual budget deficit
of $10.5 billion and I am very pleased to say when Peter Costello
brings down the Budget in May of this year, in just under four weeks
time, we will be able to tell the people of Australia that on an annual
basis we are once again back in the black. That we have turned that
annual deficit of $10.5 billion into a surplus, that we have done
the most important thing that any Government must do if it wants to
lay the basis of individual prosperity and that is to lay the basis
of national prosperity. And getting a budget deficit eliminated is
no sort of abstract economic arid exercise. It has dramatically beneficial
consequences for the whole community. Does any person in this hall
imagine that we wouldn't have been more severely buffeted, that
we wouldn't have been more heavily damaged by the downturn that
has occurred in the Asian Pacific region if we had not taken the action
we did two years ago to get our national accounts in order. Does anybody
imagine that we would have been able to insulate ourselves as well
as we have. I don't pretend that there won't be some impact
of the Asian downturn, of course there will be. But it would have
been immeasurably greater and the damage to Australia vaster if we
had not taken hold of the economic situation that we inherited and
every week that now goes by I think drives home to these people of
Australia that if we had not taken some of the decisions that we did
take when we came to Office two years ago, if we had simply said what's
10.5 billion dollars a year, what's 95 to 100 billion dollars
accumulated over a period of years? Let's not worry about it,
let's borrow some more, let's spend up big, something will
turn up to save Australia again. If we had taken that sort of careless
indifferent attitude, I can say to you my friends that the economics
staring us in the face now, given what has happened in the Asia Pacific
region, would have been far more daunting and far more damaging than
what has turned out to be the case.
But, of course, it hasn't stopped there, not only have we protected
Australia and strengthened Australia against the ravages of the Asian
economic downturn, but we have, because we have reduced our own borrowing,
and our own debt, we have brought about the most substantial reductions
in interest rates that this country has seen both on the housing scene
and now, thankfully, in the business area, the most substantial reductions
in interest rates that Australia has experienced for the last 30 or
40 years. Housing interest rates are now at their lowest levels since
the late 1960s. It is, in the words of Peter Costello, possible to
say that we have the lowest housing interest rates since man first
walked on the moon.
And if you accept that the average housing loan around Australia,
and this is the case, is $100,000, the average mortgage on a home
is $100,000, the saving is worth about $300 a month or the equivalent,
if you are an employee, of getting a $100 a week rise from your employer.
Now that is the measure of the reduction in housing interest rates
that has occurred and that is directly attributable to the fact we
have reduced the deficit. If we had not reduced the deficit, those
housing interest rates would not have come down. Now I am very happy
to say that that fall in housing interest rates is now starting to
be matched by a fall in business overdraft rates. And in the last
couple of weeks the two largest banks in Australia, Westpac and the
Commonwealth Bank have announced significant reductions in their business
overdraft rates and all I can say to you is that if you are a customer
of either of those banks, I'd go along and get the details. And
if you are a customer of any other lending institution, I'd go
along and say to them why aren't you doing what Westpac and the
Commonwealth are doing? Because competition in the financial sector
is what it's all about and I look forward to the day when the
same reduction in housing interest rates are flowing through to the
small business and to the farming area and once again on a $100,000
benchmark, $100,000 loan benchmark, the interest savings under the
proposals announced by both Westpac and the Commonwealth amount to
interest savings of about $4,000 a year.
Now I know that getting interest rates down is not the only thing
that people in rural and regional Australia want, and I know that
there are many other things that are needed, but over long years of
discussion with people on the land and people in small businesses,
I have come to know that the cost of borrowing money is one of the
greatest obstacles of prosperity and to expansion and that constantly
people have said to me it's all right for housing interest rates
to come down but unless you can get some reduction in business interest
rates, or interest rates on our farming property, we are not being
able to see around the next corner. Now I am very happy to say, my
friends, that as a result of the development that I've outlined,
we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, not only
in the housing interest rate area but also, very importantly and very
critically for this audience, in small business and farming area.
Now ladies and gentlemen, I want to say a couple of things about two
issues that Paul touched on. One of them, of course, is the quite
important issue of reform of Australian waterfront. And right at the
moment we are witnessing one of the most important and potentially
one of the most beneficial developments in Australia's long industrial
relations history that we could possibly experience. And there is
only one issue at stake in relation to the waterfront and that is
whether or not Australia is to have a world competitive, a world productive
and a world leading waterfront. That is the issue, it's not about
anything else and the single objective of my Government is to give
to this country an efficient, productive and competitive watefront.
And all of you as producers and exporters will know that the unproductive
character of the Australian waterfront, is not something that has
arrived in the last few months, it's not something that's
arrived in the last few years. It's even not something that's
arrived in the last 10 or 20 years. It is something which has been
with this country for as long as just about the oldest person in this
room can remember. It's almost been part and parcel of an understanding
of the economic difficulties that face Australia. It's been part
of the folklore almost, that this country has been bedevilled by an
unproductive waterfront.
Governments in the past have talked about it. Governments in the past
have sat down with the Maritime Union to discuss this. Governments
in the past have presided over the expenditure of hundreds of millions
of dollars to try and solve the problem. My Government in fulfilment
of a very solemn commitment that we made, and there's nothing
strange about the fact that I and my Government are committed for
reforming the Australian waterfront. We've been talking about
doing that for years. We finally got the opportunity when we were
elected in March of 1996 and the first thing we had to do was to change
the law because unless you were willing to change the law it wouldn't
have been possible for what has occurred over recent weeks to occur.
And we did change the law. We changed the law to make it possible
for union monopolies to be broken. I have no quarrel with trade unionism.
I have no quarrel with trade unionists. I believe in freedom of association.
I believe it is the birthright of any man or women in Australia to
join a union or not to join a union, but I don't believe it is
the birthright of any group of Australians to hold the rest of the
country to ransom. I don't believe it is the birthright of any
group of Australians to impose uncompetitive and anti-productive practices
on aspects of our economy. And to hear some of the complaints of the
Maritime Union of Australia in recent days, one would think that they
imagine that all of us have collective amnesia. We are invited to
forget to the fact that year in and year out they held the economy
to ransom. We are invited to forget the fact that they set out a few
months ago to destroy the very livelihood of the business that employed
them, that they have year in and year out maintained the right to
exert a ruthless union monopoly that no other section of the trade
union movement in the modern age has the temerity to exert or the
temerity to claim.
Now that is the background, but what is at stake, it is only one thing
and that is whether in the competitive world of the 21st Century,
that world that you as producers and exporters understand only too
well, whether we are to be equipped with a world competitive productive
waterfront or whether we are to tie one hand and one arm of every
producer in Australia behind his or her back and say well you can
slave your heart out on your farm, you can have the most productive
enterprise, you can have the most marvellously sought after export
but unless it gets across the wharves or it comes through the wharves
and unless it can occur in those circumstances in a productive, in
a competitive way, you are not going to be successful and you are
not going to survive in business.
Now that is what is at stake. It's a simple question of whether
we are as a nation going to claim the right to have a productive and
a competitive waterfront. Because if we can claim that right, if we
do bring that about, then that will generate more Australian jobs,
it will generate more export income for Australia and it will attract
more business investment both domestically and from overseas into
Australia. And that is the issue which is involved, nothing more,
indeed, nothing less. Whether Australia is going to remove one of
the last great impediments for her international economic success
and one of those last great impediments to Australia's international
economic success is the unproductive, the appallingly uncompetitive
character of the Australian waterfront.
And I don't think there's a man or woman in Australia who
examines this issue fairly, who won't conclude that we need to
reform, we need to change, we need to modernise the way in which we
handle our waterfront. Now this my friends is a very important issue.
It is an issue that goes to the survivability and the strength of
Australia's economic future. It is an issue where the national
interest must take precedence over the selfish interests of any one
section of the Australian community. And I have a lot of compassion
to those people who have suffered from the uncompetitive nature of
the Australian watefront in the past. I know the heartache of many
farmers has seen their produce rot on the waterfront. I know the heartache
of small business men and women who have seen their businesses destroyed
or restricted or hindered because of the unproductive character of
the Australian waterfront. And those in the Australian community who
criticise the attempt of the Government and others to bring about
reform in the name of fairness and justice, I ask those people to
contemplate the long years of unfairness and injustice to those Australians
in the past who have suffered at the hands of the bullying, bludgeoning
unfair taxing of the Maritime Union of Australia.
The other matter that I wanted to touch on very briefly is, of course,
the issue of native title. Now this is a difficult issue, it's
an issue that does generate emotion. But it is an issue that ultimately,
like all other political issues, must be resolved by the Australian
people, either through their elected representatives or if it turns
out to be the case at the time of an election in which one of the
crucial judgements to be made is whether or not the Government's
native title legislation will be passed. [Inaudible] this was an issue
that provoked a certain amount of argument on my side of politics
and I can remember going to a meeting in Longreach in May of last
year in which quite a number of the people in the audience didn't
think that my Government was going far enough to protect the interests
of pastoralists and farmers and of the mining industry, and it was
an interesting experience to have people who have spent a lifetime
supporting you politically expressing public doubts about the stance
that you were taking. But I took that stance and I listened to that
criticism. I rejected that criticism, I argued back and said that
the position that my Government, and may I say manfully and loyalty
supported by the Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer, who is the most
marvellous person that any Prime Minister could have as his deputy.
Supported by him we took a decision which we regard as representing
a fair balance between the interests of different sections of the
Australian people and we put that position into legislation. We sent
that legislation into the Parliament at the end of last year and it
was rejected by the Senate. We put it into the Parliament three months
later and it's now been rejected again. And I want to say to
you ladies and gentlemen as I've said to many others when I've
been asked this question, we have no intention of altering or retreating
from the principles that are contained in that legislation. And I
don't say that out of any pigheadedness or any stubbornness and
I don't say it out of any sense of self-righteousness, as I've
learnt in politics, it's always a dangerous delusion to be too
self-righteous, no matter what party you belong to or no matter what
the issue. But I do it because I have honestly come to the conclusion
that our legislation represents a fair balance between different sections
of the Australian community. I have refused to accept the proposition
urged on me by the Labor Party and by the minor parties and the Independents
and by other people in the community, that we should give a right
to negotiate over certain landholdings in Australia to one group of
Australians when denying it to all other groups of Australians.
I believe in that great shining principle. I believe in that great
shining principle that all Australians should be equal before the
law, and that all Australians should be accountable to the same dispensation
of justice under our board that we should all be equally accountable.
And I cannot accept the principle and my party and the National Party
will never accept the principle that one group of Australians should
be given rights and privileges that are not available to others. Nobody
denies the collective disadvantage of different sections of the Australian
community and the true remedies of that is not to create inequality
under the law but the true remedy to that is to address specific programmes
in areas of health, education and employment and housing in order
to minimise or to reduce that social disadvantage. To address social
disadvantage through creation of inequality under the law, opens up
new boundaries of discontent and anger within the rest of the community,
and that is not something that any sensible Government ought to embark
upon and it is certainly not something that my Government will embark
upon.
And can I also say in relation to the native title issue, there seems
to be a form of elitist arrogance around in the eyes of some in the
media and some commentators. That in some fashion, the Australian
people are incapable of making a judgement on this issue without lapsing
into emotional sorts and emotionally explosive language. You won't
find any emotionally explosive language coming from me on this issue
and I don't intend to repeat them at this gathering but the three
most memorably despicable comments that have been made in that particular
category during the course of this debate have all come from people
who have been fiercely critical of the stance taken by my Government
and fiercely critical of the compromise that we have urged the Australian
people to accept.
Now can I say to you my friends that solving the issue of native title
can only be realised through acceptance of the legislation that we
presented and when I addressed that gathering at Longreach in May
of last year, I outlined my proposal, I said that they would be incorporated
into legislation and that legislation would be presented to the Parliament
and if it was rejected that it would be presented to the Parliament
again and that I would take all the steps that were available to ensure
that the legislation would be put through. I have delivered on that
commitment, I've kept faith in the commitment that I made at
that gathering at Longreach because I believe the basis of the explanation
I gave them remains the only basis on which the native title issue,
a very difficult issue of native title, can be resolved.
Finally, can I say to all of you that it is always a great personal
experience to be able to get out of the large population centres of
Australia to visit the rural and regional areas of our country and
to have the experience of meeting with people and exchanging a few
words about their particular business, personal or other challenges.
By far the most rewarding part of being Prime Minister of Australia,
is the opportunities the job gives to meet, to mingle with, to listen
to and respond and I have on occasion to offer some comfort and encouragement
to my fellow Australians. And I find that every day, every week that
goes by the experience of that becomes the better and becomes the
richer. So it is for me, personally, a very rewarding thing to be
amongst all of you. I want to say how much I enjoyed meeting the young
men and women involved in the work for the dole programme and this
magnificent heritage village.
Can I marvell about the air-conditioning genius of early Australia,
this is a wonderfully air-conditioning, I say that not in any jest,
I say that in admiration, I think it is, given the large gathering,
given the humidity of the day, I think it is a beautifully air-conditioned
building. I think the reality is that as we get closer and closer
to celebrating 100 years of Australia as a nation we will become more
and more attached to, more attracted to and more enthralled by our
past. We will honour our heritage and all the great of it as we approach
our 100 years as a nation. As we wander through the village, we wander
into that beautifully reconstructed catholic church, to come to this
hall to talk the young men and women, all of whom to a man and a woman
when I asked about their experiences for working for the dole, they
say it's much better than doing nothing at home. And I think
that is something that expresses a sentiment because no