E&OE....................................................................................................
Well Ian it was really the Hughes government that I was
first a member of but to the Mayor, to Ian Causley, your grace, my State
parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentleman.
It is a great pleasure to be back in Lismore. I quite
deliberately chose as part of my week long visit to what I variously describe
as country Australia, the regions, the bush or whatever, I deliberately
chose to spend a period of time on the North Coast because this community
or these communities have a great cross section of some of the challenges
and opportunity of rural and regional Australia.
Political leaders do need to spend time in talking to
people where they live and work and interact with each other as members
of a community. The job of a Prime Minister is a varied one. There's
a time for formal decision making. There's a time for representing
Australia to the world. There's a time for putting one's partisan
political point of view but there's also importantly a time to spend
travelling this very large country and trying to come to grips with many
of the challenges and opportunities that we have as we enter the new century.
Australia is at a very interesting indeed fascinating
stage of her history. If it had ever been possible for me to have ordained,
and it never was, a time at which I might be Prime Minister of this country
I can't think of a time other than now that I would have chosen because
in many ways if we can take the right decisions as a community now we
can win for ourselves a future and a sense of security, a sense of our
proper place in the world, the like of which we wouldn't have been
able to rival on any previous occasion.
There's little doubt that at a general national
level the Australian economy is very strong. There's little doubt
that at a national level the spirit of our people is optimistic. There's
a sense of hope, there's a sense of national pride, there's
a sense of great self belief and there's a feeling that this country
is being recognised for what it is around the world and that is a modern
technologically sophisticated country always capable of punching above
its weight in international affairs with an unmatched reputation for social
harmony, for tolerance and for openness.
Now some of you may think that is excessively benign
and excessively positive picture. Perhaps in some ways it is but I think
that it does describe that national mood. But you have a national mood
and then you have what I might call a whole series of individual or regional
moods. And I recognise, as Prime Minister, and I recognised before I embarked
upon my journey around rural Australia beginning last weekend, I recognised
that although we were doing well nationally there are many areas of Australia
that aren't sharing in that national economic plenty.
In particular, I am very conscious of the fact that rural
Australia, most particularly those communities that are dependent on our
traditional primary industries are doing it very hard indeed. That is
the result of very very poor commodity prices in many cases compounded
by the perversity of adverse seasons but overwhelmingly the challenge
for those sorts of communities derives from the very very indifferent
commodity prices that some of those industries have experienced for very
prolonged periods of time.
I've mentioned to a number of people as I went around
the tables that last weekend I was in Quorn in rural South Australia,
in the Flinders Rangers area, a community very heavily dependent on wool
and a community that's doing it tough because the wool price is very
poor and they've had on top of that a fair amount of drought and
when you put those two together you have a fairly lethal combination for
rural adversity.
And I can understand how those communities feel keenly
that when they hear the Prime Minister or indeed anybody else talking
about the strength of the economy they can ask themselves well that's
alright for the rest of them, it's alright for the cities, it's
alright for him but it's not very strong out here. I want those people
to understand it and know I respect that situation. I'm sympathetic
towards it and I know the sense of missing out on the national economic
success is very keenly felt But of course it's the responsibility
of the Prime Minister to talk about the national economic condition and
it's not realistic of me to pass up the responsibility and the obligation
and the opportunity I have to talk to Australia's fundamental strengths.
I've found over the last week a very legitimate
interest and concern about service provision in regional and rural Australia.
I think it's pretty widely understood now that no matter how robust
may be your commitment, and mine is certainly very robust, to the free
enterprise system a belief that the business community better than governments
can generate economic wealth but despite that governments do have ongoing
responsibilities to provide services.
People living in the country have the right equal to
the right of their fellow Australians in the city to adequate and affordable
health services. They have the right to share fairly and equitably in
the communications revolution that is not only sweeping Australia but
indeed the entire world.
We do not want in the twenty-first century information
technology haves and information technology have nots. They also need
of course access to adequate education and other basic facilities.
I believe very strongly in the pre-eminent role of the
business community and the private sector in wealth generation because
without a strong private sector, without a strong business community you
don't have jobs and you don't generate wealth but I do believe
that there is a limited but very strategic role for the government in
the provision of certain services. Some of those services of course relate
to what is generally called infrastructure, whether it's physical
infrastructure or intellectual infrastructure, whether it takes the form
of roads, takes the form of provision of schools which is of course the
responsibility overwhelmingly of State governments, or indeed all the
other things that are normally associated with the provision of infrastructure
by governments.
At the moment we're having something of a debate in the Australian
community about the provision of further infrastructure around Australia
and the government of course will continue to assume its responsibilities
for providing financial support for that infrastructure. I think there
are opportunities for accelerated investment in infrastructure if we didn't
for example continue to invest tens of billions of dollars in owning a
telecommunications company, or owning half of it. There are probably a
number of people in this room who don't agree with me on that. I
understand that. And I regard gatherings like this as gatherings where
one should acknowledge some differences of opinion and try and state my
own views as cogently as I can.
I favour the sale of the other 50% of Telstra owned by the government
for a number of reasons. I think it's increasingly unsustainable
for the government to have 50% of a telecommunications company and the
private sector to own the rest. I think as time goes by it will create
difficult issues. For example if Telstra wanted to buy into a media organisation
for example. The government already has a media organisation, or funds
one it's called the ABC. We don't control it and we don't
seek to control it. I don't think it's desirable that any government
should seek to control a media organisation. But the idea that if sometime
in the future Telstra might seek to have an interest in a media organisation
and that's been talked about, I think it would face a very difficult
conflict of interest situation for the government as a major shareholder.
I think it's a good idea for the men and women of Australia to directly
own shares in a great national enterprise and the two floats that we've
had to date have been extremely popular. They've even been extremely
popular amongst some of the people who were publicly critical of the two
floats having taken place as an examination of the share registers which
are publicly available would indicate. And I think it would be very very
valuable and I think very beneficial if instead of all of that money being
tied up in Telstra we could use the proceeds of the sale of the other
50% to pay off the rest of our Commonwealth net debt and have some billions
of dollars left over for accelerated investment in, some of it at least,
in some additional infrastructure in regional, but not only regional Australia,
but throughout the whole country.
It's one of those issues where you need to face a choice. Is it
better for Australia to have tens of billions of dollars tied up in owning
a telecommunications company or is it better for that public investment
to be directed elsewhere. And that really is the sort of choice that's
involved. People say what about the standard of service provided by Telstra.
Let me say service obligations can be legislated irrespective of who owns
the enterprise, irrespective of who owns the enterprise. And I've
always made it very clear ladies and gentlemen that our commitment to
the sale of the rest of Telstra is conditional upon the government first
being satisfied that the community service obligations laid down are fully
met and have been fully complied with.
The other matter of course I guess I can't sit down without ever
so briefly mentioning is the issue of taxation reform. I say the issue
of taxation reform because what we are facing on the 1st of
July is not the introduction of a goods and services tax. What we are
facing on the 1st of July is a fundamental revamp for the better
of our taxation system. In the words of the original description when
we announced our policy almost two years ago It's not a
new tax, it's a new tax system. And what people should see in
what we're introducing on the 1st of July is a very fundamental
change. Amongst other things we're going to have a $12 billion reduction
in personal income tax. 80% of Australian taxpayers will be on a top marginal
rate of no more than 30 cents in the dollar. We will have much cheaper
fuel and I can't think of anything that is more directly beneficial
to and proportionally more advantageous for rural Australia than reductions
in fuel costs. We'll have cheaper exports and therefore more competitive
exports because the GST won't apply to exports. We'll have a
simplified general business tax....general tax that will reduce the
operating costs of businesses. We'll have in the business tax area
a reduction by approximately one-half in the level of the capital gains
tax. We'll have a reduction in the business tax rate from 36% to
30%. We'll see the abolition of provisional taxation. We'll
see the introduction of increases in pensions and benefits for people
on fixed social security payments to fully compensate them in advance
for the price effects of the goods and services tax. And we'll see
the removal of the rather ramshackled, inequitable wholesale tax system
where some items are taxed at 22% and some items at nothing, and replaced
generally speaking by a single rate goods and services tax.
Now it's very easy for people to run a campaign against one aspect
of this change. And I could mount an argument to all of you as to why
you shouldn't have a GST on this or that item. I suppose in isolation
we could mount an argument that we have no taxation at all, and you know,
you could mount it in isolation. But we have to have a tax system because
governments are expected by communities to provide certain services and
we need the fairest and most equitable way of raising a given amount of
revenue to provide those services and to provide a safety net for those
who through no fault of their own need the assistance of their fellow
Australians. So I ask you when you read and hear of the individual requests
for exemptions, you read and hear of the scare campaign on this or that
item to bear in mind that we have a choice we either embrace a
system that will make Australia more internationally competitive, that
once and for all will give us a better tax system, or we limp along with
the present system. Because the people who are trying to prevent tax reform
taking place, and that includes many of our political opponents, they
are really arguing for the present system. You can't have it both
ways. You can't say you want a bit of reform but without you know
all of the things that you can easily campaign against. We went to the
last election, we laid out our plan, we were quite up front. We ran the
risks, we took the punches in relation to the introduction of the new
system and the Australian people voted in favour of the government. When
it came to getting it through the Parliament, because of the opposition
of Senator Harradine we had to compromise a little with the Australian
Democrats. I would have preferred originally to have gone along with the
government's original proposition. But we compromised with the Democrats.
We got 85% of what we wanted and that's it. There'll be no going
back on that. We won't of course seek in the future to go back to
our original position. We struck a deal, that was the basis of getting
it through. And now it's important that we embrace the change and
the reason I'm committed to it is not because I'm an ideological
zealot. It's because I think this tax system will make Australia
stronger and better and economically more soundly based and more competitive,
and I think it's fairer and I think it's more efficient. And
that is why I'm committed to it. Now of course there are going to
be some implementation challenges and the government is keen to help the
community, particularly the business community, the accounting and the
legal professions in those implementation challenges. But it is one of
those occasions when we have to be willing as a community to embrace something
that is beneficial. Don't be diverted by the scares they're
easy. What is a little bit harder is building something enduring and long
term for the future of the country.
Finally ladies and gentlemen can I say that of all the impressions I've
gathered in the last few days travelling around Australia, the one that
has come through most strongly to me, and the one that's come through
most reassuringly to me, is a continued sense of community in rural Australia.
Whether it's in the very small community or in the larger towns I
find that great Australian willingness to put aside your differences on
particular issues and come together as a group of people trying to solve
a problem. Bourke is a town that has had it's share of problems involving
people of different races. It's had difficulties between Aboriginal
Australians and other Australians. And I found there that instead of the
two groups being at arms length from each other and shouting slogans at
each other, I found the groups and the leaders pleasingly and refreshingly
working together and recognising that the problems were a community problem.
That it wasn't productive to engage in name calling, it wasn't
productive to negotiate with each other from arms length, rather it was
productive to sit down as a community and try and solve these problems.
I was asked by one or two people whether I had met some leaders of the
Aboriginal Land Council and I said no, but I quickly said that I hadn't
met the leaders of the National Farmers Federation either. It's not
because I'm indifferent to either the Land Council or the National
Farmers Federation, but I took the view that if you go to the community
you meet the community, rather than try and get a particular view from
particular groups in the community much and all as I may respect those
views. And so it is in all the places that I've visited I've
found that very strong community sentiment and I think that's very
reassuring because it indicates that there's something very positive
and there's something very enlightening and I think inspiring alive
within Australian rural communities. And it's very important as we
ponder the adversity of many rural communities that we never lose sight
of the fact that there are many good news stories in rural Australia.
There are huge success stories and it would be a huge mistake if the impression
were created that everything was difficulty and despair. There is a lot
of adversity, I understand that. I've sought in recent days and I
will continue over the months ahead in a realistic achievable way, not
a rhetorical unachievable way, as leader of the government to come to
terms with those things. And I'll be aided with the advice of my
colleagues such as Ian Causley and Larry Anthony and Gary Nehl who represent
the three electorates of the north coast in the national Parliament. And
I very warmly thank you for coming along tonight. I'm enjoying being
amongst you.
[Ends]