E&OE................................................................................................
Thank you very much Mr Mayor. To my colleague, Susan Jeanes, ladies
and gentlemen. Of course, as a very young boy I learnt the word
Onkaparinga' and as a student at the Sydney University
law school I came across the word Noarlunga'. It was
the name of a very well known - in those days - case on the operation
of Section 92 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth. That of course
is not directly relevant to my visit here, but the conjunction of
the two words struck me as interesting.
I enjoy gatherings of this kind which in an informal way bring
together people who are involved in the hundreds of thousands, indeed,
millions of local communities around Australia. If you want to get
a cross-section of Australians, if you want to get a grass roots
view of what Australians are thinking, whether it be in the cities
or the provincial centres or in the bush, you get together a gathering
such as this in an informal fashion, you say a few words and then
you mingle and talk to people and hear what they have to say. You
receive quite a lot of advice, you try and answer some questions
and you try and impart a little wisdom perhaps on some subjects.
I do want to join the Mayor in complimenting Susan on the very hard
work that she does for this electorate.
Like so many electorates in Australia it is very diverse. It has
its pockets of great tranquillity and prosperity and stability.
It has other areas of difficulty where social challenges for our
fellow Australians are quite real and I was delighted to hear what
the Mayor had to say about your success through various things including
the partnership of which you spoke in reducing the level of youth
unemployment. As just about has been the case with every period
of government in recent times in Australia, this country faces at
present a number of challenges. In many ways our economic foundations
are stronger now than they have been for a quarter of a century.
We have withstood the worst impact of the Asian economic downturn
in a way that has surprised many of our critics and has impressed
many objective observers.
We have in fact done very well despite Asia having done very badly.
And the Asian economic downturn shows no sign of ending quickly,
and it is therefore very important that the steps that have been
taken to strengthen our economy against the impact of that downturn
be maintained. Now is not a time to throw away the things that have
been done over the past two and a bit years to strengthen the Australian
economy against the worst effects of the Asian economic downturn.
And equally now is not a time to turn our backs on those further
economic reforms that are needed in order to further strengthen
the Australian economy against the impact of the Asian downturn.
And one change and reform that I have very much in mind, of course,
is reforming Australia's taxation system. There has been a
lot of talk in recent weeks and months about our plans for reform.
Those plans will go ahead and they will go ahead because reforming
the taxation system is the next essential step in order to further
strengthen the Australian economy against the impact of the Asian
downturn. If we can replace our existing indirect tax system with
a better indirect tax system, if we can give Australians relief
in the personal tax area, if we can build a tax system that encourages
rather than penalises our exporters then we will do even better
relative to the countries of the Asia-Pacific region than we have
done over the last few years.
So my message to you today is that tax reform is the essential
next step to further strengthen and protect the Australian economy
against the worst effects of the Asian economic downturn. Now is
not a time to take fright in relation to that reform, now is not
a time to turn our back on that. Indeed the challenge of the Asian
economic downturn adds to the urgency of reforming Australia's
taxation system.
It won't be a system that Australians will find as revolutionary.
It will be a logical next reform step and it will deliver to all
Australians a fairer system, a system where it is harder to cheat
on your fellow Australians and a system that will give particular
relief to those with family responsibilities and will pay particular
regard to the significance to Australia of the rural sector and
of our export industries.
And I've just enjoyed the hospitality, only at lunchtime today,
of one of the great export industries of Australia for which of
course South Australia is famous. And it really is a wonderful success
story to be told that in 1985 Australia was exporting to the United
Kingdom 540,000 litres of wine and we're now exporting to the
United Kingdom 85 million litres of wine. You can't get it
any better than that and it's been a great example of Australian
ingenuity, Australian skill, Australian salesmanship, and I was
very pleased to hear from the people involved in the local industry
over lunch that the economic climate, the investment climate via
lower interest rates and low inflation and a generally benign climate
for investment that that climate is better than those men and women
in that industry have experienced for a very long period of time.
Good government, my friends, is not only about good economic management.
It is also about building strong communities, it is about promoting
and defending the fundamental values of the Australian community.
And those fundamental values include the great importance that we
place as a community on family life, the great importance that we
place as a community on voluntary effort. Australians are renowned
for their willingness to help each other, particularly in times
of crisis and distress, and those fundamental values also include
of course tolerance to each other, a recognition of, and respect
for, the differences we might have as well as those things that
we have in common and those similarities that we share as Australians.
This country in the last 40 years has welcomed millions of people
from all around the world. And Australia has been an object lesson
to the rest of the world in the harmony and the tolerance and the
acceptance that we have extended to those people. And one of the
great strengths of Australia as we move towards the 21st
century is the way in which our nation has been further built and
diversified by the injection and the contribution of those millions
of people who have come from other parts of the world. And it's
a mark of our civility, it's a mark of our decency and it's
a mark of our tolerance as a community that we have been able to
accept and to build out of the blending of those who've come
and those who were here when they came, a very united, coherent,
harmonious nation which is, because of its harmony and tranquillity,
earns not only the envy but also the respect of the rest of the
world.
Government in this country can only be effective if it works in
partnership with individuals and with community organisations. We
all want a fair society, we all want a good society, we all want
a strong society. The Government can't do it on its on. Individuals
can not do it on their own, and the great community and welfare
organisations of our nation can't do it on their own either.
It is only through a shared endeavour between the Government, the
individual and community organisations that the sort of goals we
want for that fair and strong and good society can be achieved.
Today's gathering brings together people involved in that
shared endeavour here in the electorate of Kingston. It brings together
people who are committed in the welfare sector, in the local government
sector, in the business community, your parliamentary representative,
your Mayor, and on this occasion I have the privilege of being here
as Prime Minister. And it's that joint shared endeavour which
is so tremendously important to the future of our country.
So to you, Mr Mayor, thank you very, very warmly for your welcome.
To you Susan thank you very much for having me, congratulation again
on the very active role that you play as the Member for this electorate.
You are not just a faithful echo of what this electorate says, you
are both somebody who reports on what the electorate says, interprets
what it feels and someone who presses the cause of this electorate
in a very fearless and energetic way. And that is how your representatives
should be, whatever party he or she belongs to and whatever may
be the particular problems of the electorate.
So ladies and gentleman, thank you most warmly for being here today,
its been a great privilege to address you for a few moments. Thank
you.