E&OE....................................................................................................
Well thank you very much Michael. Only seems like yesterday that I
was at this podium leading up to an event in October and it was a
great event. It was a great outcome. Pretty sound decision by the
Australian people. And it's a great delight for me to be here
today to say a few words in support of somebody I've known for
a long time, and I admire immensely, and who I believe has the intelligence
and the character and the values to be a very fine Premier of New
South Wales.
A few days ago I was talking to somebody and he said: John, tell me
why we should change the government in New South Wales? You blokes
are doing a very good job of running the economy nationally. I said
that I agreed with that. And he said: that's flowing through
so why would we change the government in New South Wales? And I said
to him that the reason that we should change the government in New
South Wales was that in a nation like Australia of federation where
responsibilities are divided between the national government and the
various State governments, no matter how good the Federal government
was, unless its deeds and its leadership were matched at a State level
by purposeful State governments then the kind of long term changes
and improvements that we all think are necessary would not be realised.
And reality is that there are tremendously important on going responsibilities
at a State level that are important to the well being of a society.
Indeed the things that touch the [inaudible] of our lives. The strength
of the policing services, safety in the home, safety on the streets,
safety on trains late at night, the quality of our government schools,
the quality of our hospitals.
All of those things are overwhelmingly the responsibility of State
governments. And it's also the responsibility of State governments
to run their economies well. They can't leave it all to the Federal
government. And you need the combination of the two. And you need
State governments that are prepared to tackle head on the difficult
issues that confront State governments.
And the reason why undoubtedly in my mind the best run State government
in Australia at present, that is the Kennett Government in Victoria,
the reason that is so successful is that it's had the courage
since it was elected in 1992 to tackle issues that are important to
that State and which can't be solved by the Federal government.
They've tackled the problem of State debt, and they've done
so by recognising that governments are no longer good in the modern
age at running business enterprises. And that if governments get out
of those business enterprises and sell interest in them to the ordinary
public and the ordinary consumer, there are dividends and improvements
all round and there is the wherewithal the cash to pay for much needed
government infrastructure and much needed provision for hospitals
and schools and all the other things that are important.
And my first and greatest criticism of the present New South Wales
Government is that it has really not tackled any of those fundamental
issues. We all know that Mr Carr and Mr Egan for two-and-a-half years
told us that the only thing that really mattered was the privatisation
of New South Wales's power industry. And you all know that in
the end that got rolled over, big time by the unions who told them
it simply wasn't on. And instead of standing up and continuing
to fight for what they believed was in the long term interest of the
State, they simply went over into a corner and wimped it and now have
the audacity to criticise the Coalition for committing itself to something
which they themselves know in their hearts is the right thing to do.
And just as Mr Beazley opposed something at the last Federal election
that he knew in his heart was needed and necessary and which he supported
when he was a member of the Hawke and Keating Governments, so it is
the case that Mr Carr and Mr Egan are opposing something that they
know deep down is needed in the long term interests, not only of electricity
generation in this State but also in the interests of getting rid
of $18.5 billion of State debt.
And of course to make matters worse we now have the New South Wales
Government quite literally claiming credit for the strength of the
New South Wales economy. They're running around saying: oh the
economy in New South Wales is getting better. It is getting better
but it's getting better off the back of the leadership that we
have shown at a Federal level. And it's getting better in spite
of the course of Mr Carr, because Mr Carr along with Mr Beazley and
other Labor leaders around Australia have opposed all of the major
reforms that the Coalition Government has carried out federally since
we came to power in 1996. They opposed every attempt we made to get
rid of Mr Beazley's deficit of $10.5 billion. They opposed industrial
relations reform. When we set about reforming the Australian waterfront,
[inaudible] stop that reform. He wasn't putting up his hand in
favour of reform. When we introduced taxation reform he opposed it.
Through his public service he has sought to obstruct the spread of
the Work For The Dole scheme through public enterprises in New South
Wales. He has tried to obstruct microeconomic reform in this State
prompted at a national level.
At every turn you have a Labor Government in New South Wales being
uncooperative in trying to obstruct the flow through of national economic
reform and national economic leadership. And yet for the purposes
of this election campaign he sets, as I said yesterday, to bask in
the sunlight of the strong economic conditions created by the very
policies that he with Mr Beazley have opposed since March of 1996.
He talks about the 4% unemployment rate. A mission impossible in this
State with the sort of policies that he espouses and the policies
that he supports. I'm very proud of the fact that the Australian
economy is now the strongest it has been for a quarter of a century.
I'm very proud of the fact that we have delivered the lowest
interest rates in 30 years, we have delivered the lowest inflation
in decades. We are seen throughout the world as having come through
the Asian economic downturn in remarkably strong shape. I'm proud
of that and all Australians should be proud of it but I want to make
it very clear that all of that has been done with virtually no help,
no cooperation and no understanding from Labor either at a Federal
level or at a State level.
It may be a political game to always oppose what your opponents do.
It may make good short term politics. But in the long run you do get
marks from the Australian people for quality policies, for quality
attitudes and for quality government. We won the last Federal election
because we had a plan for Australia's future. We won the last
Federal election because people felt deep down that we were addressing
something that needed to be addressed. And we will go on winning elections
nationally if we continue to espouse that philosophy. And the reason
why Federal Labor is worried at present and is looking more and more
lacking in policy vision is that it played politics for three years.
May have scored a few short term points, may have embarrassed us on
various occasions. But in the end the Australian people decided to
stay with us because they thought we were tackling the things that
really mattered as far as Australia was concerned. And that's
the test. And that's the test that I want the people of New South
Wales to apply over the next two weeks.
And Rod McGeoch was absolutely right when he said that this election
campaign has only really begun in the last 48 hours. People don't
engage quickly in the lead up to election campaigns. They engage even
less quickly in the lead up in to State election campaigns than they
do to Federal ones. Now what happens over the next two weeks will
decide whether we have a Coalition Government led by Kerry Chikarovski,
or we continue with the Labor Government that is prepared to ride
on our coat tails when it suits them but is not prepared to give any
kind of political support to what we're doing that's delivered
those conditions.
Kerry's team does have a plan. We do need to privatise the electricity
generation system because only by doing that will be able to pay off
$18.5 billion of public debt and give ourselves as a State the resources
to do other things. And she does have a plan in relation to so many
other issues.
And I want to say as a friend and supporter of hers for a long time,
I admire her greatly. I think she has enormous style, intelligence
and grit and determination. I think she represents a directness of
speech, she represents a directness of attitude and a concern with
the interests and the aspirations and the hopes of what one might
loosely call the mainstream of this State. I think she's not
only a very fine leader of the Coalition, I think she'll make
an extremely fine Premier of New South Wales. Will you please welcome
Kerry Chikarovski.
[ends]