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Thank you, thank you very much. To Peter Costello, thank you for
that very warm welcome. To Tony Staley; to Tim Fischer, the Deputy
Prime Minister of Australia; State Premiers; Chief Ministers; my
Cabinet and Ministerial colleagues; other Parliamentary colleagues;
ladies and gentlemen. It is an enormous privilege to be with you
this morning to deliver this National Convention address, to reflect
upon the heritage and the values of our great party, to record the
achievements of the past two years and to outline our goals for
the years ahead into the 21st Century.
Above all, the Liberal Party is a party that belongs to all Australians.
When I accepted the mandate of the Australian people on that exhilarating
night of the second of March 1996, that none in this room will ever
forget, I said the proudest thing about being the Prime Minister-elect
of Australia was that I led a party that was owned by no one section
of the Australian community, that it was a party for all Australians.
It wasn't owned by the business community. It wasn't owned
by the noisy elites. It wasn't owned by political correctness.
It certainly wasn't owned by the trade union movement. It was
owned by the ordinary men and women of Australia and I remain immensely
proud that we have demonstrated that in Government.
We are a party with a great history but an even greater future.
We remember the great inheritance of Sir Robert Menzies, our founder,
remember those long, uninterrupted years of social and economic
stability after 1949 when we had an unemployment rate that was the
envy of the rest of the world, when we welcomed in their millions
the peoples of Europe and the Middle East, whether they came like
Alex Somlyay's parents from
Budapest or whether they came from Italy or from Greece or from
the Baltic States or from Poland or Czechoslovakia. We welcomed
them in their millions and they have all become, every last one
of them, wonderful Australians and we thank them and we respect
them for the contribution they have made to our great nation.
We also remember the inheritance from Menzies of great social reform.
We remember the trail-blazing reforms of the Fraser Government.
We remember the fact that it was the Holt Government and not the
Whitlam Government that ended the inequity of the white Australia
policy. We remember the family allowance changes brought in by Malcolm
Fraser, and of course we also remember the 13 barren years under
Hawke and Keating.
Our Party has always been rooted very firmly in principles. We
believe, above all, in the supremacy and the sovereignty of the
individual. We believe that the family unit is the bedrock of our
society. We believe in the work ethic. We believe in rewarding hard
work and achievement. We believe in the principle of mutual obligation.
Those in the community who are down on their luck are entitled to
our assistance and our compassion but we as a community are entitled
to ask in return where it is reasonable that people who receive
Govenrment help give something back to the community. That is the
principle of mutual obligation and that is the principle that is
enshrined in our Work for the Dole policy which has the overwhelming
support of the Australian community.
We are a party that believes passionately in the place and the
role of small business in our society. I have often spoken very
feelingly and proudly about my own background as the son of a garage
proprietor in the inner suburbs of Sydney. I have never forgotten
the upbringing I received. I have never forgotten what I was taught
about the value of starting with nothing and building something
by the dint of your own effort and your own achievement and I long
for an Australia where every man and woman who wants to do that
can do it without hindrance or without interruption.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are also, above all a party that believes
in tolerance and racial equality. We have welcomed people from the
four corners of the earth. We have welcomed people of different
religions and of different colour and of different ethnic backgrounds.
We admire and we respect them all and they are all equal and entitled
members of the great Australian family.
Peter Costello in his introduction spoke of the achievements that
we have marked up since our election in March of 1996. We have achieved
an historic turnaround in the economic fortunes of Australia. Whatever
they may say to the contrary, nothing can conceal the fact that
Paul Keating and Kim Beazley left to the incoming Coalition Government
a huge deficit of $10.5 billion and in two short years we have turned
that around so that we have in prospect the announcement in May
of this year when Peter Costello delivers his third budget that
this country will once again be in the black. We will once again
be a country that is paying its way and that is a huge historic
achievement in just over two years.
We took many decisions in our first budget and our second budget
that people didn't agree with. There were some complaints,
even outcries, but let me say, I don't apologise for any of
the decisions that we took because, without question, if we had
not set about getting the books in order, the economic troubles
that had swept through the Asia-Pacific region would have gone close
to engulfing and undermining the Australian economy. If we had taken
the Beazley advice, if we had simply been swallowed up in the Beazley
inheritance of debt and deficit we would not have been able to fireproof
the Australian economy against the worst ravages of the economic
downturn in Asia. It will remain forever to the credit of my Govenrment
that it was prepared to take the tough economic decisions that have
brought Australia protection and insurance against the worst effects
of what has happened in Asia and I remain immensely proud of that
and I will defy any of my critics on that because every single thing
we did to get our economic house in order has meant protected living
standards for the Australian people.
It has meant that the potential economic dislocation that has swept
through Indonesia and Malaysia and Thailand and Korea is something
that will never come to Australia and it was my Government with
my Treasurer and my Deputy Prime Minister and my Cabinet colleagues
and my Parliamentary Party that had the courage and the foresight
to do that and we should always be immensely proud of that achievement.
We have delivered in the process a major social bonus. We have
not only kept those great promises we took to the last election,
the family tax initiative, the health insurance rebate, the relief
for small business, the relief for self-funded retirees but our
interest rate reductions, which are worth $300 a month to the average
home buyer in Australia. Now that, my friends, is the equivalent
of a wage rise of $100 a week to the average wage and salary earner
in Australia. Let me say that again. The equivalent of $100 a week
increase in the average wage of the ordinary worker in Australia.
All of that has been achieved in the face of fierce opposition
from the Labor Party because every measure that we took to reduce
the deficit and thereby make it possible for interest rates to fall
was opposed by the Australian Labor Party, and what is more, if
they get back into office, those interest rate cuts will disappear
because they will once again lapse into deficit and debt and once
again interest rates will go up and nothing could be more certain
than if Labor were to win the next election, that $100 a week wage
rise that is the benefit of our economic policies will disappear
very quickly.
Of course, ladies and gentlemen, one of the other great achievements
of my Government is that we have fundamentally changed the character
of industrial relations in this country. We are now watching the
unfolding of one of those great defining moments in the economic
and industrial history of a nation. What is now occurring on the
Australian waterfront is a defining moment in Australia's industrial
relations history. It will benchmark for all time the attitudes
of the Liberal Party and the National Party on one hand and the
attitude of the Labor Party and their mates in the trade union movement
on the other hand. What we have done is not to smash a trade union.
We have no desire to smash a trade union and we have no desire to
smash trade unionism. What we have done
by our legislative changes is to smash for all time the trade union
monopoly on the Australian waterfront.
Let me say again that I applaud the courage and the leadership
and the guts and determination of the National Farmers' Federation.
They are taking advantage of the legal changes that we made. It
needed a Liberal Government to make the changes. It needed a Liberal
Government to break the monopoly. It needed a Liberal/National Party
Government to give the National Farmers' Federation the opportunity
and the incentive to do what it is now doing and I notice on one
of those programmes this morning that Mr Beazley has said that if
he wins the next election you know what he's going to do about
the waterfront? He's going to have a meeting. Going to have
a meeting. That's not the half of it. He's going to have
a meeting at which Bob Hawke is the ringmaster. I mean, he's
going to have a meeting on native title. I mean, the last time the
Labor Party had a meeting on native title it produced the wretched,
unworkable Native Title Act that we are trying to fix up. So heaven
preserve us from another meeting under Labor Party leadership on
the native title.
No doubt, he will have a meeting also on taxation reform. I predict
now that the Beazley policy on taxation reform, when it is finally
revealed will involve having a meeting. The mind really boggles
when you think about a meeting about the waterfront. The last time
a Labor Prime Minister had a meeting on the waterfront it cost you
and me and the rest of the Australian taxpayers $420 million and
there was zilch improvement in productivity. So bad was it that
some of the people then made redundant about six or seven years
ago are still working on the waterfront. It's a bit like some
kind of long-running Labor soapie. Perhaps there will be some cameo
appearances from Laurie Brereton and Paul Keating as well.
Ladies and gentlemen, our reforms have not been limited to repairing
the budget deficit or, indeed, for getting rid of debt. But our
reforms have also included the creation of
100 000 new apprenticeships in the last 12 months. We've delivered
the lowest unemployment rate for seven years. We have introduced
a Work for the Dole scheme. We have demanded new standards of literacy
and numeracy throughout Australia. We have reduced rorting and welfare
cheating to the tune of $28 million a week and that
$28 million a week is redirected to the most needy people within
the Australian community. And we have also correctly rebalanced
the direction of Australian foreign policy. We have recognised that
Australia occupies a unique intersection of history, geography,
culture and economic circumstances.
We are the only nation in the world that is a projection of western
civilisation in this part of the world with profound and enduring
links, not only with Britain and Europe but also with North America,
and we have replaced the obsessive Asia-only policies of the Keating
Government with the more balanced and mature Asia-first approach
of my Government. Instead of us appearing as we sometimes did as
an anxious outsider wanting admission to the Asian club under the
Keating Government, we are now seen as a proud participant, a respected
regional mate, a country that is prepared to help our
Asian friends in their hour of need and along with Japan, Australia
is the only country that has contributed to the economy bailouts
of Indonesia, Korea and Thailand and I am very proud of those decisions
because they are in Australia's interests. They will guarantee
Australian jobs. They will guarantee Australian exports. They will
protect Australian firms' future in those particular countries.
But they are some of the things that we have achieved. But politics
is never static. It is never something that involves looking back
in retrospect all the time. It is something that involves being
proud of your past and your heritage and what you believe in and
what you stand for. But you must always throw to the future. And
ahead of us lies the great piece of unfinished economic business
in Australia and that is to fundamentally overhaul and reform the
Australian taxation system. We have a taxation system in this country
which is increasingly seen as unfair and inequitable and that is
why we want to change it.
We want to give to the ordinary Australian wage and salary earner
in the 21st Century a fairer and more equitable Australian taxation
system. We want to end the evasion and the rorting at both ends
of the spectrum. We want to reform the business taxation system.
We want to make our firms more competitive as a result in world
markets. We want to address some of the problems of Commonwealth/State
financial relations and we certainly want to respect the overall
need for fairness and equity.
Now this is not an easy task and I don't pretend that we won't
be opposed and bitterly attacked, not only by the Labor Party but
by other groups in the community. But I say to you my friends, what
is the point of holding the reins of national office, what is the
point of having a mandate from the Australian people, what is the
point of being in Government? It is not being there just to enjoy
what is involved in some kind of sense of prestige or importance.
What is really important about being in Government is to do good
things for the people of Australia and doing good things for the
people of Australia involves tackling the problems identified by
the people of Australia. And deep down, all Australians know that
our present taxation system is unfair, is crumbling and is in need
of root-and-branch reform.
The Labor Party knows that. They knew it back in the mid 1980s
when Keating tried his Option C. They knew it in ‘93 but for
sheer political opportunism, they lied their way through the election
campaign. And then to rub insult into injury, they did, in Dawkin's
1993 budget, in the greatest piece of political betrayal I have
seen in my 24 years in politics, they did the very thing that they
attacked us for allegedly wanting to do. And we all remember the
scandal of the dishonoured L-A-W tax cuts. We all remember the huge
increases in sales tax.
And my message to the Australian people is, that whatever anybody
says about taxation, always remember that whatever Labor says about
taxation in an election campaign, it will do the direct opposite
when it gets into government. And that ought to be remembered by
all Australians.
So taxation reform is one of our great goals and it's
a goal that will need the support of everybody in this room and
all our friends and supporters throughout the nation if it to be
realised. And another great goal is to fix the deplorable native
title inheritance that we received from the Keating-Beazley government.
The Native Title Act of 1993 has delivered very little justice
to Australia's indigenous people. It has been a bitter disappointment
for them. And it has, in addition, delivered extraordinary delays,
extraordinary degrees of cumbersome regulation and extraordinary
doubt so far as the mining and pastoral industries of Australia
are concerned.
My critics say I that I should sit down and have yet another meeting
in relation to my 10 Point Plan and in relation to the legislation
that is now in the Parliament again. Can I say to you, ladies and
gentlemen, I've had no less than 15 to 20 meetings over the
last 12 months with the major stakeholders. I began meeting on the
native title issue with the Premiers and Chief Ministers of Australia
at Kirribilli in January of last year. I then met the indigenous
leaders, the leaders of the mining industry and the pastoral industry.
We have already compromised. We have already made concessions. We
have already protected the fundamental rights of the indigenous
people of Australia.
The Native Title Amendment Bill now before the Australian Parliament
is a fair and balanced compromise representing the interests and
respecting the interests of all of the Australian people involved
in this very, very difficult issue. And the proposition that we
should compromise further is a call to surrender. It is not a call
to compromise. I mean, what is being asked for amongst other things
is to say, in relation to pastoral leases, that we will give to
one section of the Australian community a right to negotiate that
we will not give to another section of the Australian community.
The right to negotiate was never intended for pastoral leases.
It was put there in an extraordinary late night meeting - once again
these meetings under Labor governments - an extraordinary late night
meeting that represented a compromise in the negotiations that were
then going on. It is a right unknown to the common law of Australia.
It is not a right enjoyed by any other section of the Australian
community.
I simply want to say to all of you and to the Australian Senate
and to all the members of the Australian Senate: the Australian
people are sick and tired of this issue. They want to put it behind
them. They want us to get on with our future and they expect you
to do your constitutional duty and pass that legislation without
delay.
We have many others goals for the future. Those goals include,
of course, continuing the assault on the still too high levels of
youth unemployment. They include continuing to protect the budget
surplus that I believe we can deliver in May of this year. They
also include, as I said yesterday, the opportunity of making Australia
the second great financial centre in the Asian-Pacific region after
Tokyo. So that as we move into the 21st Century we'll have
four great financial centres in the world - London, New York, Tokyo
and Australia. We have the climate. We have the legal system. We
have the political
stability. We have the prudential banking system. We have the respected
money market systems to deliver that goal. And I believe it's
one of the many opportunities that are there to be grabbed hold
of by the Government of this country and by the Government of the
States of Australia.
But there is another great goal that I have for the future. And
just as Robert Menzies made Australia the greatest home-owning democracy
in the Western world, so it is my goal that my Government will make
Australia the greatest share-owning democracy in the world.
Already we have sold one-third of Telstra and we're along
the way towards that goal. Ladies and gentlemen, we can and should
go further. And I therefore announce today that we have made a firm
policy decision, that if re-elected we will proceed to allow the
people of Australia, the men and women of Australia, to buy the
remaining two-thirds of Telstra.
This is how we will do it. We will not wait until after the election
to introduce the legislation. We will introduce the legislation
to give effect to this goal into this session of Parliament. The
proclamation date of the legislation will be a date not earlier
than the return of the writs after the next Federal election. So
that in accordance with the undertaking I gave to the Australian
people before the last election, the Australian people will have
an opportunity at the next election to decide whether or not they
agree with our policy. If they throw us out, then presumably the
legislation won't be proclaimed by the Labor Party. Did I hear
somebody say, ‘Commonwealth Bank.'
But they re-elect us, as I believe they will, we can then proceed,
without lead or hindrance, to allow the men and women of Australia
to buy into this great Australian company. And let me remind you
that in the first float of one-third 92 per cent - 92 per cent of
the employees of Telstra bought shares in that company. Six hundred
and two thousand Australians bought shares for the first time in
their lives. And I know that out there, there are men and women
who will applaud this decision. Because they will see it as an opportunity
to buy shares in a great Australian company. And I can't think
of a better way of enhancing Australian ownership than to let Australians
buy something. I mean, this notion that in some kind of indirect,
surrogate way the Government is best placed to own something on
your behalf - it's never worked in practice and that's
not surprising.
This particular decision will enable us to retire about 40 per
cent - let me say that again - about 40 per cent of the Federal
Government debt left to us by Paul Keating and Kim Beazley.
As was the case of the first one-third, the overwhelming bulk of
the proceeds will, of course, be used to reduce our debt. But we
will reserve the right, as we did in relation to the first one-third,
to provide a specific social bonus out of the capital proceeds of
the sale of the remaining two-thirds.
Good economic policies, sound and prudent fiscal management always
return a good and useful social bonus. And that has been the case
with our interest rate policies and our budget policies, so it is
the case in relation to our privatisation policies. And John Fahey
and Richard Alston will be, this morning, releasing a joint press
statement detailing some of the other aspects of that particular
announcement.
But, ladies and gentlemen, they are but some of the achievements
and some of the goals for the future. That is what we have done.
That is what we believe in. And that is some of what we will do
in the future. And what is the alternative? The alternative is a
negative party that has lurched back in the area of industrial relations
to the 1950s and the 1960s. The alternative is a Labor Party that
refuses to admit it was wrong.
As William Hague said on Friday, one of the first things that I
said to him when I met him in London last year after he'd been
elected Leader of the Conservative Party, was that he had to demonstrate
to the British people that he changed. In other words, it was a
different party from the party that had been thrown out. But the
only thing that has changed about the Australian Labor Party is
that they no longer have Paul Keating as their leader.
Their policies have not changed. In many respects, they have got
worse. They are more interventionist, they are more profligate,
they are more irresponsible than what they were in government. They
would revisit the scene of every political and economic crime they
committed in their 13 years if the Australian people were to re-elect
them. They would drag us back to deficit and debt. They would send
home interest rates sky-rocketing. They would bring back political
correctness. They would kowtow to the trade union movement. They
would repeal our industrial relations legislation.
That's no idle piece of political rhetoric my friends. They
have said it. They are totally opposed to our industrial relations
reforms. They even want to go back to the 1950s and reinforce the
full rigour of the award system. There'd be no NFF at Webb
Dock under a Labor government. John Coombs would become the plutocrat
of the Australian industrial relations scene if the Labor Party
were elected.
Ladies and gentlemen, Labor in government again would be an immense
risk. The Australian people threw them out after 13 years because
they were fed-up with their approach. Their Hobart Conference demonstrated
that they had done no serious policy work in Opposition. They have
not developed new ideas. They have opposed for the sake of opposing.
They have been negative in the extreme and they offer no hope, no
inspiration, no leadership and no alternatives to the