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Thank you, thank you very much Bob Baldwin. To the Administrator,
Mr Ron Eagle, to Senator John Tierney, Mr Peter Blackmore, other distinguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen. And certainly, most importantly of all,
the people of the Hunter Valley.
I am delighted to have this first opportunity as Prime Minister to
be at the Maitland Town Hall. I thank the Administrator and the people
of Maitland for the civic reception that you have honoured me with
today. I regard gatherings, such as this, as being the ultimate in
grass roots politics. It is the ultimate way in which a Prime Minister,
or any senior figure in political life in Australia, can meet a cross-section
of the community, can meet men and women in business, the people who
run the hospitals, the people who run the caring charities, the people
who work on the land, the people who are retired citizens, the people
who run the ambulance service, the people who run the fire service
and the police service. All of those groups in the community come
together on an occasion like this, and it is a great reminder to me
as Prime Minister, of the tremendous community spirit which binds
the Australian nation together.
I am also delighted to be in the electorate of Paterson which my friend
and colleague, Bob Baldwin, has held in the Federal Parliament since
March of 1996. Although this is certainly not an overt political occasion,
it's a civic gathering, I don't think I'll be offending
any sensitivities to say very emphatically that Bob Baldwin has been
an outstandingly active and energetic representative for the electorate
of Paterson.
He's a consistent advocate of Paterson's causes, he persistently
lobbies for the interest of the people of Paterson and he has persistently
lobbied me on a number of issues which have been of particular concern
to people in his electorate. Because it is a very diverse area and
as the Administrator said in his introductory remarks, we've
had the opportunity since some of the unfortunate events which overtook
the city of Newcastle and the Hunter Region generally. We've
had the opportunity of seeing how different sections of the Australian
community can work together in a time of difficulty. Nobody welcomes
the decision that was taken by BHP. The important thing though was
that the city and the area didn't look back. They didn't
wallow in self pity, they looked for new alternatives and new hopes
and new opportunities. And to a cooperative effort involving the Federal
Government, the State Government, the Newcastle City Council, the
business interest of the city and the region, the representatives
of the trade union movement and also the representatives of the business
community it was possible, amongst other things, to put together a
Prime Minister's task force for dealing with the problems thrown
up by the BHP announcement on Newcastle. And interestingly enough,
that task force was jointly chaired by a former BHP official and the
then Secretary of the Newcastle branch of the Australian Workers'
Union. And at all stages in my contact with that group and with the
people of the district following those events in Newcastle, there's
been a total absence of politics and there's been a total commitment
on the part of everybody to try and come up with sensible solutions
for the future of the region.
And can I take the opportunity of saying here today that a few months
ago my Government committed millions of dollars to support the establishment
of the Redbank Power Station and that project, if it can go ahead,
will generate 1,000 jobs in the construction phase and several hundred
additional jobs over and above the construction phase. And it is being
held up at the moment because Energy Australia won't connect
the power station to the New South Wales electricity grid and I do
hope that the owner of Energy Australia, which is the New South Wales
Government, will exercise the rights and powers of ownership and ensure
that Energy Australia does what is necessary to get that project going.
My Government has committed millions of dollars to it. My Government
wants the jobs that it will generate. We now need the electricity
generated in order to get the project going and I hope that the common
sense that that situation commends itself to the New South Wales Government
over the weeks and the months ahead, and I think it's very important,
when there is a legitimate interest in the creation of new jobs in
this region, I think it's only important that every effort be
made, every effort be taken, every opportunity seized to support a
project that will generate new jobs.
The Hunter Valley has a tremendous sense of community spirit as the
Administrator and Bob have both said, I am no stranger to this part
of the world. My wife has very long family connections, not only with
Newcastle, but also with Singleton. And my family have holidayed in
this part of the world for close on 20 years, and we do it because
it is a very pleasant place to come to. We've grown very fond
of the area, it brings together an extraordinary cross-section of
the Australian community, and it does represent the coastal areas
of Australia. It does, of course, in Newcastle contain one of the
oldest and the best known of the industrial centres of Australia.
It does, of course, in the wine growing area manifest one of the great
burgeoning export industries of this country and it does, of course,
contain many very attractive rural parts of Australia.
And this morning at Tocal I had the opportunity of sampling the delights
of that beautiful college which is the most respected agricultural
college in Australia. And the New South Wales Department of Agriculture
is doing a splendid job in administering that college for the Alexandra
Trust and about 400 or 500 young Australians a year pass through that
college. And what it does is to bring together all that is good about
Australia's agricultural past, but at the same time impart to
those who pass through the college modern, contemporary understanding
of the demands of farming and agricultural life.
Agriculture is still a very important part of the fabric of the Australian
nation. It is not only the rural way of life that's important
but the export income that we earn from farmers is tremendously important.
Without that export income, the people who live in the cities of Australia
would be a lot worse off. Without that export income, which is often
not as great as the effort of the farmers who generate the income
deserved, without that income Australia would be a much poorer nation.
And I want to take the opportunity as I have on other occasions when
I've visited non-metropolitan areas of Australia, to say that
one of the greatest and continuing goals of my Government is to ensure
that our rural producers receive a fairer go on international markets.
Now that means, not only tough negotiating in the world trade fora,
like people like Tim Fischer and John Anderson, but it also means
that we have a taxation system that encourages exporters. It also
means that we have an efficient, productive waterfront. It also means
that we have low inflation and low interest rates. And I am very happy
to say that although many areas of rural Australia have been gripped
by drought in recent years, and some continue to be gripped by drought,
and I saw them myself first hand despite the deceptive appearance
of some green on the top, that there is still a lot of drought affliction
in this part of the world. But despite those setbacks there have been
some good pieces of news for rural Australia in recent times.
To start with, we are making a huge commitment to landcare and bushcare
through the Natural Heritage Trust of Australia. The Natural Heritage
Trust of Australia will spend $1.25 billion on capital projects designed
to repair Australia's environment. And these projects, and I
made some announcements yesterday in Far North Queensland, will include
some further investments in relation to river systems in both the
Hunter area and also the northern part of New South Wales. But the
great advantage of the Natural Heritage Trust is that we are going
to spend the money on practical environmental challenges. We are spending
a lot of money on cleaning up the Murray Darling Basin which is the
underpinning of a large part of Australia's agricultural base.
We are spending a lot of money on tackling the horrific salinity problems
in Western Australia. And you only have to fly over Western Australia
to get an idea of how difficult the salinity problem is. We are spending
money on landcare. There are now 4,000 landcare groups in Australia.
I went to the Annual Presentation of the Prime Minister's Landcare
awards in Canberra a few weeks ago and it was a marvellous reminder
to me of a cooperative effort between farmers, environmentalists,
townspeople, everybody who is interested and comes together with a
common cause of preserving and re-enriching the soil and the land
of Australia. So this Natural Heritage Trust is not going to be spent
on what I might call high-profile politically correct, peripheral
environmental issues. It is going to be spent on grass roots, down
to earth, ongoing, far sided environmental regeneration. Cleaning
up our rivers, preventing ocean outfalls, removing salinity, caring
for the land, caring for bush. All of those things are the way in
which we can make a lasting contribution to the rehabilitation and
the regeneration of the Australian environment.
The other thing that I am happy to say has come the way of the bush
and come the way of small business over the last few months is, of
course, that as a result of the policies we've followed. We've
seen a very significant fall in interest rates. And I have been travelling
around rural Australia and regional Australia for a long time now
in various disguises, and the last couple of years I've been
touring around as Prime Minister and in the last few months I am happy
to say for the first time I am able to look at rural people, I am
able to look small business men and women in regional towns in the
face and say: your interest rates are coming down. Because for so
long our interest rates have been at Himalayan levels. Only a few
years ago we had interest rates at 17, 18, 19, 20 per cent and we
now, as a result of the announcements made by the Commonwealth and
Westpac, and I apologise for the representative of any other bank
present for mentioning those two, but they happen to be the ones that
have made the announcements. As a result of that we are now looking
forward to a situation where on an overdraft of $100,000 you can achieve
an interest rate reduction of about $4,000 a year because those banks
have announced packages that will have their base lending rates at
about seven and a quarter per cent.
And when you compare that with the levels obtained only a few years
ago it is indeed extremely good news. And that is something that is
unalterably one of the best pieces of news that farmers and small
business people can have because the burden, the crushing burden of
high interest rates has been the most perennial, repeated, constant
complaint which has been made to me over the last 10 or 15 years when
I have been to many a civic reception, been to many a homestead, been
to many a small business in many a main street of many a country town
in Australia. And the constant complaint I've had more than anything
else is the level of interest rates, and at long last we are starting
to see the breaking of that particular drought and we hope, of course,
that the breaking of some other natural drought will come very, very
freely and very, very soon to those parts of Australia that need it
very badly.
I am often asked ladies and gentlemen what is the best thing about
being the Prime Minister of Australia, and the best thing without
question about being the Prime Minister of Australia is the opportunity
to come to gatherings like this to meet so many different parts of
the Australian community, to be reminded as I have today of the enormous
part of our heritage which is owed to the rural community. To speak
to people who's families for generations have owned land, who
for generations have been rural people. To have the opportunity of
meeting people who have made this country their home from Europe or
from Asia. To meet, as I have at this civic reception, people from
countries as far apart as Thailand and Greece and Italy. To have the
opportunity of being reminded of the contribution to the Australian
culture of the 1990s of our Indigenous heritage and to understand
that respecting everybody's right to fully identify according
to their own culture is part of the modern Australia and is part of
what it is to be an Australian in the 1990s.
So visiting gatherings such as this, having the opportunity of getting
out of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, not that I have anything against
any of the people who live in those wonderful areas having myself
grown up and spent all my life in Sydney, it is part of the tonic,
the regeneration, I suppose of the political being to meet so many
people and to understand and to listen a little more and perhaps understand
and realise a little better some of the particular challenges that
you have in these parts of Australia.
I want to thank all of you for the contribution that you make to your
community. I want to salute again the great Australian volunteer spirit.
We are one of the great volunteer nations of the world. We are a nation
that better than most have grasped the fact that Governments can't
do it on their own. Individuals can't do it on their own and
community groups like the churches and the great charitable organisations
can't do it on their own either. But we can only build the kind
of society we all want, a good and a fair society, a good, fair and
strong society as we move towards the 21st Century if we enlist the
cooperation of the Government, the community groups and the individual,
with each playing their own part. Recognising that when people need
help, they should be helped but in accordance with the principle of
mutual obligation, if we help people who can afford to give something
back to the community in return for that assistance then that is not
unreasonable to ask for. And that principle of mutual obligation underpins
our approach to such projects as the work for the dole.
But ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very warmly for the civic reception
that has been tended to me by the Administrator and by the people
of the city of Maitland. I wish you all well, I thank you for the
contribution that you are making to our country, to your community
and it's been a great delight to have been amongst you today.
Thank you.