E&OE
Brian, Margaret Reid, my other federal and state Parliamentary colleagues, and particularly Ian Macdonald, the Minister in the second Coalition Government that has responsibility for Canberra, ladies and gentleman. It really is a great pleasure to come back to this sell-out dinner of the ACT Division.
To reflect for a few moments on what the Liberal Party has achieved, and can I in her absence because it's occurred since our last dinner, can I congratulate Kate Carnell on the outstanding victory which she and her team achieved. That wasn't an easy election. There was the odd critical comment made by our Labor opponents about the federal Government, but despite all of that the people of Canberra realised that if you wanted the Canberra economy to progress and to boom then you ought to have a Liberal administration. And at this point it's worthwhile my stating, because this is the major Liberal Party gathering that I address in the Australian Capital Territory, it is worthwhile stating a few facts about Canberra and about the economy of the Australian Capital Territory. And these facts make very interesting reading against some of the things that are said. It is true that the size of the Commonwealth public sector in Canberra has contracted but the private sector workforce has increased since 1996 by more than 1000 people, and overall the number of unemployed in Canberra has actually fallen in that two-and-a-half year period by 2500. In March of 1996 when the Coalition Government came to power the unemployment rate in Canberra was 8.1%. In October of this year it was 6.7%.
The number of young people looking for work in that period has fallen by one-third. Retail turnover in Canberra is now more than 13% above what it was in March of 1996. The consumer price index for Canberra is now one-third of what it was when we took office. And the population of the ACT has actually risen by 2000 in the last two years. And the median house prices have actually increased from their 1996 levels. Now I mention these things to put into context and to try and present an overall picture of the ACT economy because fundamentally it is a very positive optimistic economy. There have been changes. I don't deny the fact there have been a number of restructurings carried out in the public service that have had an impact on public sector employment.
But it's also fair to say that the balance between public and private sector employment in Canberra has shifted markedly in favour of the private sector. Many of you will remember that when Sir Robert Menzies retired as Prime Minister in 1966 that he cited the development of Canberra as one of his major successes. He went so far as to describe Canberra as his pride and joy. And he is the founder of the Liberal Party and as our longest serving Prime Minister was responsible for many things: the creation of the National Capital Development Commission, the Mint, Lake Burley-Griffin, structuring of the ANU around the institute and the faculties, the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station, the massive tree planting campaign, the development of satellite cities and so on.
And subsequently under the Gorton Government you had the progress of Weston Creek and the beginning of Belconnen. And the High Court, the Gallery, the Telecom Tower were all opened during Malcolm Fraser's tenure during his Prime Ministership. And the genesis of the Australian Institute of Sport, the ADFA and the new Parliament House also owe themselves to Malcolm Fraser. And with that background in mind, and in the context of that it is worth reminding ourselves that during our first term, since March of 1996, we have actively supported the very high speed train link between Canberra and Sydney which has the potential to provide 15,000 jobs during its construction phase and 2000 long term jobs on completion.
And the preferred proponent, Speed Rail, has progressed to proving upstage. We've committed $195 million to the upgrade of the Federal Highway. We have sold the airport lease of Canberra airport to the locally owned Canberra Airports Group and congratulations to Terry Snow who's here tonight and has done so much for Canberra and for the ACT Division of the Liberal Party. We've committed $472 million up to the year 2001 for Commonwealth construction projects in the ACT. We've introduced legislation which is opposed by Labor to provide long term residential leases in the ACT. We've chosen the site and design for the National Museum of Australia and we've maintained restoration works at the Old Parliament House, found a new block for the National Archives in the East Block complex and refocused the activities of the National Capital Authority.
Now I've taken a moment to read out a list and to refer to some notes, something I don't normally do. Something I don't particularly like doing. But I wanted to get a few facts and figures right because too many of our political opponents, too often, and for the meanest of reasons, have been talking down the economy of the great city of Canberra and I'm a little tired of that and I'm a little tired of the rather limp descriptions of the Government that I lead as being hostile to the interests of the people of the ACT, and hostile of the interests of people who are employed in the public sector.
Those allegations are wrong and the allegations that we have been indifferent to the economy of the ACT are demonstrably wrong as those figures I've read out have demonstrated. At the other side of the story, and that is that what the Government I lead has done for the overall economy of Australia, and what the Government that I lead has done therefore for the economy of Canberra is a story worth dwelling on for a few moments tonight. I can't remember a time that I have been in public life where the economy of this country has been on such stable and sure foundations. I entered Federal Parliament in May of 1974. I entered Federal Parliament in the middle of the three years of the Whitlam disaster. I entered federal Parliament in 1974 when wages growth in this country was running out of control, when inflation was beginning to climb, when we were coming used to something that we hadn't experienced in more than a generation and that was a high level of unemployment. I watched the international credit worthiness of this country go down. I watched unemployment rise. I watched the public service become bloated. I watched the private sector become nervous and hesitant. I watched interest rates rise, I watched inflation rates rise. And it's taken more than 20 years for that period of instability and that period of chaos to be finally worked out of the Australian economy because right at the moment we are enjoying the most stable, secure, predictable economic conditions that the Australian people have seen for more than a generation.
You really do have to go back to the 1960s to find a period when interest rates were as low as they are now. When inflation was as low as it is now. When the climate for business investment was as strong as it is now. When the reputation of Australia economically abroad was as strong as it is now. I've just recently being in the APEC gathering in Kuala Lumpur and the strongest impression that I bring back from that gathering is the respect in which Australia is held overseas. And we are held in respect overseas because we are seen to have weathered the worst effects of the Asian economic downturn.
We are seen to have stared down the economic disaster that overtook the Asia-Pacific region. And we have, in fact, come through that disaster in much better shape than even the more optimistic of us imagined possible 18 months ago. And that didn't happen by accident, it didn't happen by accident, it happened by design. And it happened because the Government you voted for in March of 1996 was prepared to undertake the necessary surgery to fix the Australian economy. I know some of the things we did in reducing the budget deficit were unpopular and I know they were very unpopular here in Canberra. But in the long run what we have done and the run is not so long because the beneficial effects are now being enjoyed by Australia. But in the long run or the short run, however you describe it, we have, in fact, given to the Australian economy a level of protection that nobody would have thought possible or likely two-and-a-half years ago.
And there is no substitute when there's a storm raging outside your country, there is no substitute for sound, domestic economic policies. I mean, when you get into trouble around the world economically you have got to make certain that you have got your fundamentals right. And we did that, and the result is that we are seen now as being the economic strong man of the Asian-Pacific region. We are seen by those countries as being strong enough and able enough to help them in their hour of difficulty, in their hour of travail. We are seen as an economy that has not only got its budget in order but as a result of the programme that the Government took to the last election we are seen as an economy led by a Government that is prepared to undertake the necessary long-term further reforms that will strengthen the Australian economy. The programme we took to the last election was courageous in the history of Australian politics.
I don't recall a government that took a more comprehensive, indeed, a more radical economic plan to an election and survived to tell the story. And the reason that we won the last election was that deep down those Australians voting where it really mattered knew that what we were putting to them was necessary in the long-term interests of our country. They knew that if we wanted to become more competitive we needed a new modern taxation system. They knew that the message coming out of the Asian turmoil was that countries when faced with that kind of turmoil don't slow down on the reform progress they, in fact, accelerate the reform progress. And that is what we were able to take the people at the last election. Now, I don't mind admitting that there were times during the campaign when I wondered whether or not we were going to win. There were times on election night and day when I worried about what the ultimate outcome would be.
But there was one thing that I never had any doubt about during that campaign and that was that what we did was the right thing in the long-term interests of Australia. And I knew that come what may I would always be able to reflect on the period and reflect on what we had done in that election campaign and say to myself that we called it right for Australia and we called it right for Australia's long-term interests. And every day that goes by now that the election is behind us I am increasingly proud of the tremendous team effort that the Liberal Party put in all over Australia. It's one thing to win an election when you know that your political opponents have been in office for 13 years and you know that the incumbent Prime Minister is deeply unpopular and you know that there is a deep desire inside Australians to have a change of government. And that was the condition that existed in 1996 and I had no false illusions about the character of our victory in 1996.
But in 1998 it was very different. We had been in office for two-and-a-half years, there was an inevitable subsidence of the strong anti-Keating feeling of 1996 and people were looking at things somewhat differently. We have taken some decisions that have hurt a few people, we have done a few things that were unpopular in the long-term interests of the country and we were promoting something that was easily capable of distortion and misrepresentation and that was a new tax system. And to win in those circumstances and to win comfortably in those circumstances gives to the re-elected Government a sense of strength and a dignity and a sense of authority which is even greater than what we enjoyed after the 1996 election.
Now, we have ahead of us a tough legislative battle. We have got to get our programme through the Senate. All I can say to those who sit opposite us in the Senate, just remember that elections are all about political parties presenting programmes, arguing for them, seeking support and when they get that support implementing those programmes. And I want to make it very clear to all of you tonight, ladies and gentlemen, and through you to the Australian people that we didn't lightly take that taxation plan to the Australian public at the last election. We didn't do it for fun, we didn't do it for our health, we did it for the long-term benefit of the Australian community.
And we intend to see it through and we are absolutely determined that every last element of that taxation plan is going to be implemented for the benefit of the Australian people. And we don't say that out of some sense of ideological zeal, we say it because we genuinely believe that the economy of Australia needs and deserves a modern contemporary 21st century taxation system. A taxation system where 81 per cent of Australian taxpayers will be on a top marginal rate of only 30 cents in the dollar, a taxation system that, incidentally, will deliver if the Parliament enacts the law, a 30 per cent tax deduction on private health insurance premiums from the 1st of January next year.
A taxation system that is going to take $10.5 billion off the costs of running businesses in Australia. A taxation system that is going to make exports $4.5 billion cheaper. A taxation system that is going to deliver an aggregate cut in personal income tax of $13 billion a year. And a taxation system that is going to make the entire infrastructure of the Australian economy more competitive and more able to win markets, not only abroad but also to retain their fair share of domestic markets against import competition. A case in favour of tax reform is overwhelming. It's a case that was acknowledged and advocated by my former opponent Paul Keating when he was Treasurer back in 1986.
And it's a case that was advocated by Bob Hawke when he was Prime Minister. It's a case that was endorsed by Kim Beazley when he was a Minister in the former Labor Government. It is the case that has been endorsed by every serious student of the taxation system of this country. I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks that I entered Parliament in 1974. 1974 was the year before the first of a whole series of comprehensive examinations of the Australian taxation system were presented to the Australian Parliament and which recommended as a fundamental part of reform the introduction of a broad-based indirect tax. Our proposal for taxation reform is years and years overdue.
We have long needed a fundamental change to our taxation system. We have finally won public approval for it. Let the members of the Australian Senate listen to the Australian public, listen to the verdict of the Australian people and give effect to the wishes that were expressed at the ballot box on the 3rd of October last. Can I finally, ladies and gentlemen, thank all of you for staying the distance and travelling the journey. I know it's been up and down, I know it's been a bit rocky, I know there's been criticism here and there of one or two things that the Federal Government has done.
But looking around at this audience tonight I see a lot of old and familiar faces and that's wonderful. I also see a lot of new faces, I also see that this is a packed gathering. And I am told that lots of people wanted to be here tonight but couldn't be accommodated because it had already been sold out. Now, what that means is that the Liberal Party is alive and healthy and vibrant and well in the Australian Capital Territory. That's what that means.
I mean, you are very lucky you have got a Federal Government that's a Liberal government and you have got a territorial government that's a Liberal government. And that's not bad. You are not only lucky but you are pretty clever. And it's a good thing because it's been a very vibrant organisation and I do want to thank the President, Brian Nye, I want to thank all of the other people that have worked so very hard to keep the Liberal Party going here in the Australian Capital Territory. You deserve the success you have achieved, it's nice to have won two federal elections in a row, it's nice to have won two ACT elections in a row and it's great to be celebrating tonight amongst friends and supporters. Thank you very much. [ends]