Subjects: Regional Forest Agreements; impact of globalisation
on regional communities; balance between caring for the environment
and protecting jobs in regional Australia; Japan/US official visit;
Australia as a world financial centre; business taxation reform; Goods
and Services legislation; Asian economic downturn
E&OE...................................................................................................
Well, thank you very much, Thorry; to Richard Court, the Premier of
Western Australia, Kate Carnell, the Chief Minister of the Australian
Capital Territory, my many Ministerial and Parliamentary colleagues.
And can I also particularly welcome the presence here of my old friend,
Sir Robert Cotton, who was the President of the Liberal Party in the
New South Wales Division when I joined the Party in the late 1950s.
He's a former senior Federal Minister and, of course, Ambassador
to the United States and a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank
and a man who has made an enormous contribution to this country.
Thank you very much, Thorry, for your very kind words of welcome.
I noted with great interest your endorsement of the Minister. I mean,
I now expect when I go to a breakfast and Peter Reith is present some
of the leadership of the trade union movement with thank me for him.
And if somebody from the National Taxpayers is present, somebody will
thank me for Peter Costello well. But, anyway, it's a mark, I
think, of the attempts that Ministers have made to get close to industries
that are important to the future of this country that you should say
that. And can I start my remarks as well as thanking you most warmly
for sponsoring this breakfast.
To repeat, in very unambiguous terms, our strong commitment to your
industry that we do believe you can have a sensible balance between
caring for the environment and protecting jobs in regional Australia.
This idea that somebody's got to lose and somebody's got
to win is wrong. You can get a win-win outcome. We remain very committed
to the Regional Forest Agreement legislation. It will be reintroduced
into the Senate well, it's in there, it will be listed
for debate immediately we go back and we will continue to press very
strongly for its passage, and we believe that will occur. And other
issues that you've raised with me this morning, Mr President,
I'll be very, very happy to pursue.
Yesterday, when I was doing an interview with Neil Mitchell on 3AW
in Melbourne, apropos of something that is being debated at the present
time I made the observation that over the last couple of years there
was probably no political/economic issue that was more heavily debated
or more important and relevant to political debate in this country
than the impact of globalisation on regional communities. The reality
is that we are part of a global economy. We can't avoid that.
We can't get off it. The die was cast several decades ago and
the processes are irreversible. And anybody who runs around Australia
saying that somehow or other we can turn the clock back and somehow
or other we can avoid the implications of globalisation is deluding
themselves and also the people they talk to. But the impact of that
globalisation has to be managed. And your industry is a very important
part of that because it does provide hope and relief to many people
in regional communities. And it's not much good standing on a
truck or a soap box in regional Australia and talking about the glories
of globalisation unless you can translate that into jobs and you can
translate that into hope and inspiration for the people who live in
those communities. So, we're very conscious of the importance
of your industry to that and for the jobs that you provide.
On Monday, ladies and gentlemen, I'll be going on an official
visit to our two, I guess, most important economic partners still
and that is Japan and the United States. And during those visits,
over a period of two weeks, I'll have the opportunity of talking
naturally to the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Obuchi and President
Clinton, as well as senior people in the American Administration and
the Japanese Government. And it is, that visit, very much about moving
on to the next step of entrenching Australia's strong economic
position in a world which has grown in its respect for the capacity
of this country to successfully manage its domestic economic affairs
and to strongly project itself as a significant middle economic power,
punching well above its weight not only in the region but also around
the world. And one of the things that we must as a country do increasingly
is to concentrate on our areas of strength internationally. And one
of the areas that I want to concentrate on when I'm away is building
the attraction of this country as a world financial centre.
One of the things that's come through very clearly over the last
few years to me is that some of the things for which we were just
about to be criticised by the rest of the world and even by some in
Australia for being rather too stodgy and too conservative are now
seen as some of the great strengths that this country has. Because
what the Asian economic downturn demonstrated was that countries that
had well regulated and transparent banking systems, countries that
had sophisticated, well developed corporate laws, countries that had
a very stable political system, countries that had a very free and
open and tolerant society, they are increasingly the countries that
have done well and survived. And those that haven't have been
a lot less successful.
And when you look at Australia now one of the things that make it
particularly attractive to the rest of the world, of course it has
an unenviable lifestyle and it doesn't matter virtually where
you live, you can pick any one of a number of locations in Australia
and it really does have an unenviable lifestyle, but it has a strong,
stable political system. It, of course, has a very strong economy
but it has a very well developed banking system and it's prudentially
supervised, it's well regulated and people depend on it and they
believe in it. And we don't have what was witnessed in other
parts of the world - we don't have the banking system being used
as a de facto arm of government to look after, in some cases, unfortunately
the friends of that government. We have a financial system that is
strong and stable and at arms length. We have a strong regulatory
and corporate code. And, of course, importantly, as far as the world
of commerce and business is concerned, we speak the English language.
And I don't say that in a trite fashion, but it is very important.
So when you put all of those things together, this is a very attractive
place in which to do business. But that's not enough. You have
to go a bit further. You have to make certain that we have a competitive
economy and particularly we have a competitive financial system and
we have a competitive taxation system.
And last week we really put the last of those building blocks into
place as far as the generality of our taxation system is concerned
through the passage of the Goods and Services Tax legislation. And
we now go on to the next item of business and that is the item of
business taxation reform. And if we do that properly that will be
another reason why Australia should be a world financial centre. It'll
be another reason why there can't be a city in Australia that
doesn't rival and in time surpass Tokyo as being a world financial
centre because the time placement of Australia is ideal for it to
grow in importance as a world financial centre. And if we make certain
that our tax system is competitive, if we make it tax-wise a neutral
choice between investing in the United States and investing in this
country so that other factors come into play for example, then we
have a real prospect of achieving that goal and achieving that dream.
And this is the right time to be taking the decisions that will promote
our prospects as a world financial centre because we are, to use that
jargon, seen by many as the flavour of the month as far as economic
performance is concerned. We've done better than anybody expected.
I guess better than most in this room expected. It certainly surpassed
my more optimistic expectations.
And there is a realisation that because we stared down that Asian
economic downturn that we have a prospect of really ratcheting up
our economic performance just that much more than we ever thought
was possible. But we don't have unlimited time to do that and
we won't be forgiven if we drop the ball on important further
reforms and that is why the GST Legislation was so important. Sure
it wasn't everything everybody wanted but it was the great bulk
of what everybody wanted and it still represents the greatest single
economic reform in a particular area that this country has seen since
the end of World War II. And it will have a lasting impact. It will
make us more competitive. And if we can make certain in our taxation
reforms in the business area we can give ourselves a more competitive
tax system internationally. If we can remove some of the imperfections
in the capital gains tax area, particularly in relation to impact
on venture capital, then we'll be striking very important further
blows towards enhancing this country's reputation.
There's only one other thing that I want to say and that is something
very directly related to the interface of the Liberal Party with the
business community of Australia. There are many people here representing
business organisations and representing individual companies. I'm
very glad that so many of you have come to this Federal Council. This
is the first Federal Council Meeting that has been held in Canberra
since we were returned to government in 1996. And it's very,
very nice to be back in the beautiful winter of Canberra for a Federal
Council Meeting. I reflect on all those cold, wintry meetings we had
when we were in Opposition and they seemed to stretch endlessly into
almost political infinity at various times and we've now, of
course, happily put those years behind us. And we value the links
we have with the business community. We're not owned by the business
community. We're not owned by any section of Australian society.
And one of the proudest things I could say on the 2nd of
March 1996 when we claimed victory is that we didn't represent
one section of the Australian community, we sought to represent the
entire Australian community. But having said that, we value very much
the private enterprise business ethic. It's very important. We
believe in business. We believe in a pro-active investment climate.
We believe in the profit motive, it's honourable. We believe
that business is the foundation of jobs growth and employment. And
we believe in following policies that attract rather than discourage
business investment.
We don't have the nave belief of many of our political opponents
that wealth will somehow always be there. That you'll always,
somehow or other, be able to find it to fund the various things we
want to do in a humane society. So we do regard it as very, very important
to have your understanding. We agree most of the time, not all of
the time, but on every occasion, on every issue, we're very happy
to listen to what you have to say. We enjoy very much your support
and understanding. I thank you most particularly, Thorry, for your
association's sponsorship of this morning's breakfast. It's
a delight to be with you all and I hope you enjoy the rest of the
Council. Thank you.
[ends]