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Well thank you very much to Rob Borbidge the Premier of Queensland,
to Joan Sheldon, the Deputy Premier and Treasurer, to Russell Cooper
the Minister for Police and State member for Crows Nest. I used
to live next door to Crows Nest but there aren't as many sheep
in Crows Nest Sydney as there are in Crows Nest Queensland. But
to my Federal colleague, the Minister for Veterans Affairs, Bruce
Scott, Bill Taylor the Member for Groom, Senator Bill O'Chee,
Mr Healy, one of the local State members, Bob Carroll, the State
President of the Liberal Party and Ian Macfarlane, the Liberal candidate
for Groom at the next election and anybody else I have missed, ladies
and gentlemen.
It's a tremendous joy for me to be here this morning. One
of the best things about being Prime Minister is the opportunity
to travel around our vast country and to meet different communities
in their own local centres. And to somebody who grew up in Sydney
it is always a particular delight to get out into the bush and therefore
when the opportunity presented itself this morning to be associated
with this very important project, which is going to be supported
as you will see in a moment out of the Federation Fund, I leapt
at that opportunity.
Eighteen months ago when we brought down the 1997 Budget we decided
that we would make available an amount of $1 billion to fund important
projects all around Australia which would mark the Centenary of
Federation in a particular fashion. They wouldn't just be ordinary
public works programmes, although some of them have a high content
of what could be so described as public works. But they'd also
have a little bit of historical significance where they could and
they'd also relate to a project that part of Australia for
a long time had wanted to see funded. And in that context, one of
the first announcements that we made was funding towards the construction
of the Darwin to Alice Springs railway. Something that governments
within Australia have been talking about almost since federation
and had really not got around to doing anything about. We also announced
funding for the Jervois Bay infrastructure program in Western Australia
that's designed to support the export industries of Western
Australia which, along with the export industries of Queensland,
make such an enormous contribution to the national export effort.
And so when we came to Queensland there were a number of very important
features that struck me about the federation projects. The first
was that just about every project put up by the Queensland Government
was worthy of financial support. Unfortunately we didn't have
a fund of $5 billion, we had a fund of only $1 billion. But I must
compliment the Queensland Government on the quality of the projects
that were put forward. And I am very happy to say that the first
project that we decided to fund which Jones referred to, Bris Tram,
a $65 million contribution. That was number one on the list from
the Queensland Government. And the cultural heritage trail which
we are going to support and which this woolshed is a very important
part and really epitomises what it is all about. It was also very
high on the list and therefore I am delighted to say that the Federal
Government will contribute the sum of $50 million from the Federation
Fund to the Queensland cultural heritage network.
Now as the Premier said, this network will remind the Queenslanders
of the turn of the century of what life was like a hundred years
ago or more. And it is a fact that wherever you live in Australia
as we approach the centenary of the federation of our country people
are becoming more and more nostalgic about the events that led to
federation. They are becoming more respectful of the past. They
are wanting to preserve links with the past and they are wanting
to, I guess, educate their children and themselves about what life
was like a hundred years ago. And this marvellous woolshed is really
a tribute to that attitude, to that state of mind. And it is really
wonderful to see all the names on the beams. I was reminded this
morning that one of the names on the beams, R J Randall, Dick Randall
was probably the longest serving secretary of the Treasury that
Australia has ever had. And his signature has probably appeared
on more bank notes over a longer period of time than any other head
of the Treasury. And as I look around it is a marvellously and lovingly
restored and cared for building. And I think it is very important
that Australians of this generation do visit places like this. And
the rest of the trail is in the same vein. There is the coastway
trail as Rob said from Brisbane to Thursday Island. There is the
North Queensland mining and dinosaur trail. The very important Matilda
Trail through central Queensland and, of course, the Southern Downs
Squatters Trail around the Toowoomba area. And it will be a marvellously
integrated project. It won't be just a series of disjointed
ideas. There will be a theme about it and there will be a pattern
to it and it will present an integrated idea of what life is like
and a reminder of the great cultural heritage of this part of Australia.
It will generate 2150 jobs in the construction phase and many ongoing
jobs after that. And it will be responsible for promoting a lot
of additional local economic activity. And the way in which it is
structured is, of course, in recognition of the special character
of Queensland. The one State in Australia where the bulk of the
people do not live in the capital city of the State and it gives
to the State of Queensland that very special character.
But ladies and gentlemen, in every sense of the word, this particular
proposition put forward by the Queensland Government suited the
criteria of the Federation Fund. And I was very happy along with
all of my colleagues to give it very strong support. And I congratulate
the Queensland Government in what it's done in putting it forward.
Can I just say two other things and the first of those and, very
importantly, I am delighted to be here with Rob Borbidge and with
Joan Sheldon. There is a Queensland election in two weeks time
so I've read and heard! And may I say that I am happy to stand
shoulder-to- shoulder in every way with both of them and to support
the Queensland Government in all that it has done since it was elected
three years ago. I've had a very close association with the
Premier of Queensland during that period of time. I have dealt with
a lot of Premiers, both as Prime Minister and as Treasurer, as Opposition
Leader and in other positions. And there is none that I have enjoyed
dealing with more than I have dealing with Rob Borbidge. He is a
person who has always put the interest of Queensland first and that
is his responsibility and that is his job and he has done it very,
very well. And I would never respect a State Premier who didn't
try and put the interests of his or her State first. I'd think
something had gone wrong with Federal/State relations if that didn't
happen. But within that, he has also at all times been a very good
Australian and he has always seen to the national interest as well.
And on some occasions I know, and I thank him for it. He has taken
a bit of political pain in Queensland to support the national interest
and I respect that and I thank him very warmly for that.
And can I just say that when I read some of the things that are
written and said about the Queensland election I sometimes wonder
that some of the commentators need a bit of a reality check. There
is only one question in that election and that is whether Rob Borbidge
continues to be the Premier of Queensland or Peter Beattie becomes
the Premier of Queensland. Any noise on the side is irrelevant.
I mean that is the choice, that's what it's about and
that's what people should be concerning themselves about. I
mean it is very easy when you don't have the faintest possibility
of ever having to implement the promises you make in an election
campaign to say all sorts of things. But when you know that at the
end of the day the acid will be on you after polling day to actually
do what you say, you then have to adopt a rather more responsible
attitude.
And it's very easy for minority groups in Australian politics,
and there are plenty of them to run around offering simplistic solutions
to difficult problems. To offer the earth whenever there's
a tiny cell of discontent. To say: yes, I'll stop this, I'll
do that, and I'll fund something else, knowing full well that
they will never be asked to do it. That's the easiest, laziest
and I think the most dishonourable option in politics. If you've
been in politics a long time you know that at the end of the day
you can't escape responsibility and you can't escape reality.
You can't escape decent policy, you can't escape being
honest with people about what you can and can't do. And I've
found in Rob Borbidge a man of his word, a man of great honour,
a great fighter for Queensland.
If he'd have been at the first State of Origin game which
I was at, I am very happy to say at the Sydney Football Stadium
last Friday week. And I've got to tell you Prime Ministers
are strictly neutral in State of Origin games strictly neutral.
I mean when the game was going, NSW go I was sandwiched between
Nick Shahadie and John Laws and Nick in his inevitable style he
said gee that was a pretty good start wasn't it John?'
and I just sort of sat there and he said what's wrong
with you?' and I said Prime Ministers are neutral Nick But
you'd have been, of course, greatly delighted by the fantastic
win that Queensland was able to snatch right at the final moment
and I imagine there won't be too many neutral people at the
second one. One of the great contributions that Queensland has made
to Australian sport is a bi-partisan approach to State of Origin
games.
But I am delighted to be here this morning and to wish the Queensland
Government well and to say that as far as the Federal Government
is concerned, I have a very simple minded view and that is that
the interest of Queensland and the interest of Australia will be
best served by the re-election of Government led by Rob Borbidge
and Joan as Deputy Premier and I'll be delighted to continue
the very close cooperation between our two governments.
Finally, can I simply say to you again, thank you for having me.
It is a real delight for a Sydney boy to get out of the big smoke,
to get away from Sydney, to get away from Canberra and to spend
some time in rural Australia. I am very fond of Toowoomba. I don't
think there's an inland city in Australia, which is more beautiful,
and I am looking forward to spending a bit of time there later on
today. But particularly to those associated with the Jondaryn Woolshed.
To those associated with the activities of the Cultural Heritage
Network here in Oakey Creek, congratulations on the tremendous work
that you are doing. We all feel particularly warm about the bush
as part of our Australian heritage and this is a magnificent contribution
to it and the Federal Government is delighted to be associated with
the Queensland Government in support of it. Thank you very much.