E&OE.............................................................................................
Well, thank you very much, Graeme; to, first of all, collectively,
to all the members of the Howell family. This is a great occasion
for all of you. To the Deputy Premier of Queensland; to the former
Premier of Queensland, Mike Ahern; to my Federal Parliamentary colleague,
Gary Hardgrave, and to David Watson, the leader of the State Parliamentary
Liberal Party, the employees of the company, ladies and gentlemen.
I always get quite a thrill out of being involved in the opening of
something that represents a march forward, an extension of a previously
successful business into an even more successful expansion in prospect.
And today is a very important, indeed, a very exciting day, not only
for the family which is represented by not only the founders of this
company but also by them and their almost 600 employees, but in many
ways what we are recognising today is the sort of thing that any government
of any political persuasion, be it State or Federal, would always
want to see created. And that is a company starting in Australia only
a generation ago, still retaining its essential character as a family
business but growing over that period of time, getting a very strong
slice of the domestic market and also laying claim to a very important
slice of a world market.
And this company, EGR, is really a perfect metaphor for what we want
to see more of around Australia. We want to see companies that start
with a family base and retain that essential family character. We
want to see companies that invest in high tech. We want to see companies
that skilfully use research and development. We want to see companies
that build export markets. We want to see companies that treat their
workforce well and recognise that unless you reach out to your workforce
and involve them in the decisions you take and share your future with
them, quite understandably you don't get the best out of them.
And this is a company that has done all of those things. And this
is a company, of course, if I may say so modestly and just in passing,
which has benefited from some of the underlying strengths of the Australian
economy. I mean, it's very good that your interest rates are
lower now than they used to be and it's very good that the interest
rates that your employees pay on their houses are now about $320 a
month lower than they used to be. We are living in very strong, buoyant,
economic times.
About 10 days ago I attended a two day conference in Melbourne run
by The Australian newspaper and it had the marvellous title
of Australia Unlimited' and it spoke of the sense of hope
and optimism that we all feel about our nation as we move into the
next millennium. And one of the keynote speeches was delivered by
the former chief economic advisers to one of my predecessors, Bob
Hawke, and the speech was delivered by Professor Ross Garnaut. And
he said that he believed that we might possibly be in the third great
era of strong economic growth and expansion that Australia's
experienced since it was founded. The first era ran from 1901 until
the commencement of World War I. The second era began in the early
1950s as a result of post-war reconstruction and the enormous benefits
of post-war migration and then ran through until the early 1970s.
Now, whether we are in the third great economic era or not it is undeniable
that Australia has great opportunities, has been able to stare down
the worst of the Asian economic downturn and has an underlying economic
strength. But what we need to capitalise on that is the contribution
of people, the contribution of people who run and invest in businesses,
the contribution of people who work with the owners of those businesses
in a true partnership to build a very successful enterprise. And your
company has done exactly that. It is a model. It's been successful
in expansion. It's grown strongly. It's looked after its
workforce. It's got a good product and it's won and it's
retained markets. And it's used the various incentives that have
been available and have been provided by successive governments.
And I do endorse what Mr Elder said, there are great areas of cooperation
between State and Federal governments. You hear about the differences,
you don't hear about the cooperation. And that not only applies
in economic issues but it also applies in one of the most pressing
and challenging social issues of our time and that is dealing with
the scourge of illicit drugs within our community. And I've said
as recently as an hour or so ago on 4BC that as far as I am concerned,
as Prime Minister, I will work with any Premier of any political persuasion
across all party divides and all party lines to find a better solution
and a better outcome in relation to that particular problem. And I
know that is the view of my State Premier colleagues, whether they
come from the Labor Party or from my side of politics.
But today is very much an occasion to celebrate the success of a family
business. I have a special place in my heart for family businesses.
I grew up in a very small business background. My father started a
small garage with absolutely nothing in the 1920s and built it into
a business that was able to support his own family and provide for
them extremely well. And I've never forgotten how important it
was in our lives the ethic of starting with nothing and working hard
to build something up in your lifetime and leaving some of it behind
to your children. It's very much the story of Australia through
the generations. This particular family has done it rather better
than most. You've built a wonderful enterprise and you've
done it extremely well. And it's wonderful to see the different
generations of the family here today.
So to all of you can I say congratulations. Can I thank all of the
management and the employees of the company for the contribution that
they are making. You are regarded quite rightly as not only a national
leaders but in many cases, in many respects, a world class leader
in this particular area of plastics. And the importance of this company
to the Australian domestic industry and the importance of the company
to our export markets in this area cannot be overestimated. Thank
you very much for inviting me to be here today. I am honoured to have
been asked to open the extensions to this extrusion plant. I thank
you all and I wish the company great good fortune and continued expansion
and success into the future. Thank you.
[ends]