E&OE...................
Well, thank you very much Senator Newman. To you the Attorney-General
and my other Cabinet ministerial and parliamentary colleagues, ladies
and gentlemen.
It is with considerable pride that I have the opportunity of launching
the Government's response to an excellent report of a parliamentary
committee chaired by Kevin Andrews. This committee and the cause of
strengthening and broadening a strategic approach to family policy
has been a very strong personal interest and personal crusade of Kevin
during the time that he has been in the Federal Parliament as the
member for Menzies. And he's made a special contribution to policy
developments in this area. He brings not only a deep personal commitment
but also to his background an understanding of the importance of family
life, the essential role of family life, within the Australian community.
And today's launch and the policies that are behind it would not be
possible without the very creative work of Kevin's committee and the
personal contribution that he has made to it. And I wanted to record
that at the commencement of my remarks.
I also want to thank my ministerial colleagues, Jocelyn and Daryl,
in particular but also a number of others who are here today for the
very positive role that their policy work has played in developing
what I think is a very integrated approach to family policy by the
Government. I think particularly of the contribution of industrial
relations reform. To providing men and women in the workforce with
greater choice and I'll come to that in a moment. I also want to thank
John Herron who's brought to the broader understanding of family life
in Australia the particular challenges and needs of family life within
our indigenous communities. And it's a reminder to us of what a key
role family associations and family links have always played within
the indigenous communities of Australia.
I also thank Richard Alston for his practical recognition of the genuine
alarm of Australian parents about some of the material that is transmitted
in times when it is viewed by Australian children. And can I say at
the outset that I make absolutely no apologies for the fact that the
Government I lead has been willing to take action in relation to that
material. It does not represent a new censorship rather it represents
a recognition of the reality of the genuine concern that Australian
parents have and if governments are not prepared to identify with
that concern then governments are failing in one of the most fundamental
of their responsibilities.
I think we all understand the role and importance of families in the
Australian community. And I guess there's a bit of a dilemma when
you come to examine the Government's role. On the one hand, we all
know that happy family life comes out of personal relationships and
if there is love and security and respect in a home then you have
a stable family and that is the best environment in which to raise
children. We also know that no government can legislate to make people
nice to each other and we all know that governments can't legislate
to make people loving and faithful to each other and no governments
can legislate to dictate or compel a particular pattern of human behaviour.
So in between those two realities you have to strike a balance. On
the one hand you don't want a government running a 'nanny State' telling
you how to behave, heaven forbid. On the other hand you don't want
a government that is utterly disinterested either in providing the
symbols of commitment to family life or indeed the practical policy
measures that help people achieve more satisfactory outcomes in their
families and in their personal relationships.
But what we have tried to do over the last three years is to recognise
that the Government has a limited but a strategic role in developing
family policy. And we have tried to develop a strategy that pays regard
to the fact that in the end it is human behaviour that dictates the
stability of families. And such basic concepts of loyalty and commitment
and personal affection but equally that the way in which Government's
policy impacts on individuals can either increase or decrease the
capacity of individuals to sustain a relationship. Everyone knows
from their experience in dealing with marriage breakdown whether it
be through counselling or giving legal advice or otherwise that financial
pressures are one of the principal reasons why relationships come
apart. And the inability of some people to cope with financial pressure
and to organise simple things such as the household budget are often
at the heart of the breakdown of a relationship between two people
in a family. And therefore you can't ignore the importance of a strong
economy and that's why we have argued very strongly to getting our
economy right and taking $330 a month - you have heard that figure
before but I'll repeat it again - off the average Australian mortgage,
does make an enormous contribution of the capacity of the average
family to, sort of, get over that problem and move onto the next challenge.
I think we also know that for years we have had a taxation system
that has been progressively less accommodating towards the cost of
raising children than it used to be. If you go back 30 or 40 years
you'll find that, relatively speaking, a family was better treated
under the tax system than it is now. And that's one of the reasons
why when we came to office just over three years ago we brought in
the family tax benefit which reversed that trend. And I am delighted
that some of the analysis of our taxation package has indicated that
the largest benefits have gone to many of the low to middle income
families in proportionate terms. And I make no apology for the fact
that we have reversed to some extent the trend over the last 15 to
20 years against a sole income family. Not because I think the sole
income family is the ideal it's just that I believe in choice and
I believe that people should have the right to organise their family
affairs and the decisions they make about the caring of their children
when they are young according to their own personal preferences and
not according to a model dictated either by a government or the sheer
force of economic circumstance.
And I am very proud of the fact that when the, how should I put it,
when the dust settles and when the clouds move away from the focus
on the detail of what food is in or out of the GST and we start focussing
on the longer term benefits of taxation reform you will that there
are very significant benefits for the generality of Australian families
with a far greater focus on recognising something which all parents
know and that is raising children is quite expensive. And it doesn't
get any less expensive when the children get older, it, of course,
gets increasingly expensive as we all know too. So you can't talk
about family strategies in the context of structures and so forth
without first acknowledging the centrality of the general economic
and social condition in which people live. And if there is a sense
of hope and optimism and stability and security in the community more
families are going to stay together because the pressures on them
are reduced and their capacity to deal with challenges of life are
also reduced.
It is true that bringing together all of these responsibilities within
Jocelyn's portfolio was a major administrative step forward and a
major recognition of the importance of having a unified approach to
family policy. Under, once again, the taxation reform plan we are
going to simplify the payment of family benefits, we are going to
make them more generous and we are going to have a families' assistance
office which is designed to, sort of, look after all of those family
payments. And the whole system from the 1st of July next
year is going to be not only more generous to middle income families
but also dramatically simplified.
So there are a lot of benefits for families in a very tangible form
that are coming out of taxation reform. But in trying to strike that
balance between on the one hand recognising that it's the human personality
that shapes human behaviour and relationships but also recognising
the Government does have a strategic but limited role to provide not
only symbols but also practical support and practical guidance. But
I very much see the approach that we adopt towards family policy in
the context of what I have increasingly described as the social coalition
that this Government is trying to build within our community. And
that is a recognition that acting on its own no one section of the
community can solve all of the problems. And if you leave people completely
to their own devices some are going to suffer and they are going to
fall between the cracks and they are not going to get any assistance
and there is going to be a lot more misery particularly to children
who would otherwise be the case. Equally though if you allow the Government
to be too heavy-handed and prescriptive and interventionist and give
any government the opportunity to do so and it will and it will start
telling people how to behave and how they ought to organise their
family life and how they ought to organise the caring of their children
and how many hours a week some of them should be at work and not at
work - that's also not the solution.
We have great organisations within our community and they do great
work and many of them are represented here today. They also acting
alone can't pick up all of the pieces or provide all of the preventative
education. And, therefore, I talk increasingly about drawing on all
of those resources in a collective sense and recognising that we all
have to work together in what I call a social coalition to tackle
these problems. And you will find dotted through all of our policies
that social coalition. You'll find that increasingly under this Government
we have brought forward the policy role as well as the caring role
of organisations like the Salvation Army and the society of St Vincent
de Paul, to mention but two. We don't just see them as providing a
caring role, although it is tremendously important, we also see them
as providing a policy role because they have a better understanding
of human frailty and of human need than most of us because they're
dealing with it all the time.
We're not, as a government, seeking to withdraw our support. I want
to make it clear, particularly to an audience like this, that when
I talk about the social coalition I do not see that as an excuse for
the Government winding back its support. I see rather it as a device
whereby we can maximise the commitment and the resources that are
available in the community to respond to particular human need and
particular challenges.
One of the first things I did as Prime Minister was to convene the
group that formed the Youth Homelessness Taskforce after I was elected
in 1996. And it was a meeting that took place in my then Opposition
Leader's committee room or meeting room in Chifley Square in Sydney
and to - the other building rather in Sydney - to talk about a commitment
I'd made when I addressed ACOSS in October of 1995 as Opposition Leader
to have a taskforce to look at different ways of responding to youth
homelessness, recognising that youth homelessness was an expression,
a rather brutal expression of family breakdown and family failure
in many cases. And I had as Chairman of that committee Captain David
Eldridge of the Salvation Army in Victoria. And that committee, over
a period of three years, that taskforce developed a new approach,
a new strategy to bring about reconciliation where that was possible
between homeless children and their parents. And I was very pleased
after the last election to be able to announce a significant four-year
extension of the pilot programmes that have been established and which
is going to assist something in the order of 7,000 children and 5,000
parents over a 12 month period.
Now, it's not curing all the problem. Some would say a lot more needs
to be done. The answer to that is, yes it does. But what that approach
did was to recognise the fact that it wasn't just a question of the
Government saying, yes we'll provide support if people declare themselves
to be homeless. It was a question of the Government marshalling the
resources of these agencies, getting beside the young people, finding
out if there were a possibility of reconciliation and if there were,
bringing that about but if there wasn't, ensuring that there was proper
opportunity for those young people to find some hope and some possibility
of betterment in life as time went by.
The social coalition is also very evident in our approach to drugs,
an issue that's never often off the front pages of Australia at the
present time and something that destroys families. In common with
every other member of Parliament in this auditorium this morning some
of the more difficult conversations I've had and the more heartrending
conversations I've had with constituents, some as recently as over
the past few months, of those whose children have died of heroin overdoses
and they ask themselves and they ask me and they ask the community
very difficult questions. And there's no simple answer to that. And
you won't cure the problem of drug addiction in this community unless
you recognise the need to get the Government, to get welfare organisations,
to get individual families and the business community all working
together. And our approach is very much an expression of that social
coalition.
One of the initiatives in the budget of which I was particularly proud
was our implementation of our election undertaking to provide $48
million over five years for a youth suicide strategy. Youth suicide,
particularly amongst males in regional areas of Australia, is one
of the highest in the western world. And when that is occurring inside
a nation that, in general terms, is experiencing a good deal of economic
prosperity and social optimism, it's a particular challenge and one
that we should all endeavour as best we can to respond to.
And I mention those things by way of background, ladies and gentlemen,
to make the point that a sensible family strategy from a government
has got to recognise that in the end you can't, as I said, legislate
human behaviour. But you can put up signposts, you can commit yourself
to symbols and you can provide an economic framework which is conducive
to social and personal stability. You can provide specific incentives.
You can emphasise the importance you attach as a government to stable
families and stable relationships. You can be bold enough to recognise
that perhaps the course of the character of our society and the unwillingness
over many generations, particularly of Australian men but I think
also of men and women but particularly of men, to talk in an open
fashion about their feelings and about their relationships, that over
the years as a society I think because of, I suppose, our make up
we've been a little coy and a little reluctant to recognise that from
time to time all of us need a bit of advice in relation to our relationships
and in relation to our families. I think it's fair to say that until
fairly recently a lot of Australian men would have found it particularly
difficult to even acknowledge the fact that they might need to get
a bit of advice about their relationships and a bit of advice about
how they might keep their families or their relationships together.
Now, I think we're changing. I think we are becoming a lot more able
to verbalise and talk about these things and I think that's a highly
beneficial development.
I think the changed attitude over the last 10 or 20 years towards
domestic violence within our community is a manifestation of that
changed attitude, the recognition that it is a huge social problem
for some people, a recognition that it is the ultimate expression
not of manliness but the ultimate expression of unmanliness, domestic
violence. And it's something as a community we should be more willing
to discuss and to recognise the need to do something about it. And
I think we are a community now that can perhaps talk about the need
to provide people with marriage and relationship education. And that's
a reason why one of the specific announcements I make today is to
trial a voucher scheme in various areas of Australia to provide people
who have indicated their intention of marrying a voucher to defray
the cost of receiving marriage guidance and education. We're going
to trial that on a basis in a number of regions throughout Australia
and if it proves to be successful it's a programme that is going to
be further expanded as time goes by.
We talk a lot about preventative education in relation to drugs. We
talk a lot about preventative health measures. I think we should talk
more about preventative relationship and marriage guidance measures.
And to recognise that for all the resources that we pour into our
schools and our education system there is precious little taught about
the basic realities of parenting, the basic importance of certain
practical things so far as relationships are concerned. In the past
we made the invalid assumption that that was always catered for at
home. Now, in many cases it is and the education that many children
receive from their parents in relation to these matters is infinitely
superior than they will ever receive from anybody else. But that is
not always the case. And some mothers and fathers who are devoted
and loving find it more difficult to provide that kind of support
and advice than others do. And I think we have to be more willing
to recognise in our education processes that that kind of assistance
should be made available.
We are going to establish a marriage and family council which is one
of the recommendations that was made by Kevin Andrews' report and
the details of that are contained in the material that is being made
available to you.
One of the emphasis' within our strategy will, of course, continue
to be the need to provide the best possible environment for parents
to balance their work and their family responsibilities. I've often
spoken of the fact that over the years, although the importance of
family life in our community has not altered but most people still
regard having a secure family life is the most important thing they
can achieve throughout life, the needs and the activities of modern
Australian families are different from what they were a generation
ago. The much higher participation of married women within the Australian
workforce and the growing desire of both men and women to have the
optimum choice regarding the blending of their work and their family
responsibilities is a very important policy challenge. And I think
it really is very much at the heart of an effective family strategy.
Not an approach which says that the desirable model is this or the
desirable model is that but rather an approach which says to the parents
of young Australian children, it is for you to decide what combination
of full-time parental care or paid childcare, at what stage in your
working life, it is you for you to decide what is best for your children.
It is not for the Government to say which is best. But having decided
your desirable arrangement for your family that no one choice is a
lesser or an inferior choice to the other and the idea perhaps a generation
ago that the place of one or other parent is at home, just as that
was wrong, it is equally wrong to embrace the nostrums of some who
suggest that those who choose to have one parent at home full time
while children are young, that in some way that is an inferior choice
and indicative of an unwillingness to embrace the realities of modern
life. I think we have moved to a situation where people look at these
things now more maturely and without the prejudices of a particular
standpoint from which we come.
I'm particularly pleased that the Attorney-General is here today because
the responsibility that he has as the person responsible, in a legal
sense, for the Family Law Act is integral to any comprehensive family
strategy. We have put more resources into marriage guidance. We have,
over the years, recognised the growing importance of that and, in
a sense, what I'm announcing today in relation to providing support
for relationship counselling before marriage is an extension of the
importance that we attach to that.
Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion can I say that the whole purpose
of launching this strategy today is really three-fold. It is to underline
our very strong commitment to the importance of families within the
Australian community, to recognise that whatever changes may have
occurred in Australian society it is still overwhelmingly the case
that most Australians draw not only their maximum emotional strength
and support from their families but also overwhelmingly a great degree
of their physical and material support from those families. It's also
to recognise that family breakdown carries not only financial and
economic costs but also severe emotional costs. And without imposing
in any way a utilitarian definition on it I'm bound to repeat what
I've frequently said before, that apart from its enormous emotional
and personal advantages, a stable functioning family still represents
the best social welfare system that any community has devised and
certainly the least expensive. And an aggregation of stable functioning
families represents, at a national level, the best social welfare
system that any community has devised. But it's also the reality that
not every family functions and it's the role and the responsibility
of governments to help those people whose families have fallen apart.
Firstly to try and prevent the ruptures occurring. But if those attempts
fail to provide a compassionate, sensitive, non-judgemental understanding
of the people who are the victims of family breakdown particularly
children.
Now, no strategy will be total in its provision for these needs. No
strategy will strike completely the right balance between the inevitable
acceptable of the fact that human behaviour is beyond the writ of
any government but by the same token governments have ongoing responsibilities.
But what we have tried to do over the last three years is to strike
a right balance and this strategy that I launch today in response
to Kevin's report recognises those three principles. I think it's
an important milestone in the Government's long policy march towards
a better family policy. I thank Kevin. I thank Jocelyn and Daryl and
all of my other colleagues for the contribution they have made. And
I particularly thank all of you for coming along today to this very
important launch. Thanks a lot.
[ends]