Subjects: Australia open for business; trade and international investment; globalisation; Asian economic
E&OE..................
Well thank you very much Mark, ladies and gentlemen.
Somebody suggested when I arrived here that instead of giving a speech Janette and I should repeat how we reacted last night when Australia won the women';s waterpolo. And somebody said you know it might be a little more entertaining. So I';ll try and match it but in a rather different vein.
Can I first of all thank the Clifford family for this marvellous facility. It';s a great Australian export industry, it';s a great performer and it';s had to do it against some pretty fierce competition. And you know we don';t have some of the protective devices that exist in other countries such as requiring you know under the Jones Act - some of our American friends will be aware of what the Jones Act is - and I think the company Incat has done absolutely brilliantly.
But ladies and gentlemen it';s very, very difficult for anybody to be other than super enthusiastic about Australia in every conceivable way at the present time. Australia of course is on display to the world and if I may say with a great deal of deeply felt pride of the men and women of Australia who are doing it marvellously.
There';s going to be a lot written about the Games and how successful they were and who was responsible and so forth. I think the people that have made the Games so successful are the people of Australia and the friendliness and the spontaneity with which our volunteers welcome people. And the thing that has warmed me most of all is to be grabbed by the arm by visitors to our country and told that the Australian people are very friendly towards them. And that really is worth everything because in the end it';s the decency and the friendliness of your people that counts more than anything else.
But I haven';t just come here tonight to say that Australia is a wonderful place because the Australian people are wonderful. I do want to say a couple of things about the quality of investment life in this country.
Australia is, as Mark said, a very strong economy. It is, given the size of its population, a very big economy. And over the last ten years Australia has had a growth of more than four percent per annum. We have one of the lowest government debt to GDP ratios of any industrialised nation in the world. Our rate of growth over that ten year period has been more than double that of the OECD average.
We are a country that has enjoyed very low levels of inflation. We have been able miraculously in the eyes of many to stare down and live through the Asian economic downturn. That of course thankfully is starting to pass into history. And I';m delighted to note the recovery of so many of the economies of the Asian Pacific area. And the way in which the governments of many countries such as Korea and Thailand set about implementing the very difficult adjustment measures that were needed a couple of years ago is a object lesson to many others around the world.
And it is something of curious interest, more than curious interest perhaps to foreign observers of Australia that this country was able against all predictions, and occasionally, I have to confess against the expectations of many people in the Government and many of our advisers that we were able to escape the worst of that Asian economic downturn because so much of our trade was directed to the Asian Pacific area.
And I';ve often been asked why it was the we were able to do it. I think Mark touched on some of the things that were important. The fact that we do have a very stable political system. I say that not in a partisan sense, although if you prompt me I will, but I say it more in an institutional sense. I mean this is a very mature, stable democracy. It has a robust parliamentary system, it has a free press, it has an incorruptible judiciary which are really the three ingredients in my view more than anything else you write down on paper, they are the three ingredients for really flourishing, stable and mature democracy. It';s also a country that has very clear rules of corporate and legal governance. It manages and prudentially supervises its financial institutions very effectively. They are some of the things that stuck to Australia in a positive sense when the collapse occurred in our part of the world.
I also think it';s important particularly in the context of debate at the present time and discussion about the relative levels of currencies around the world I think it';s important to remember that one of the reasons why Australia was able to sail through the Asian economic downturn was that we had a flexible exchange rate. And the adjustment that was taken by the exchange rate a couple of years ago was indeed fundamental to the economic salvation of Australia at that particular time. I think it is important to remember that when you operate in the environment of a flexible exchange rate as we do and we will continue to do it';s very important to remember to take a longer view and not to take a short term view in relation to the relative comparisons of the exchange rate value of the Australian dollar against other currencies.
So they are some of the things that were important when this country was able to work its way through that very difficult economic situation for our region. The way in which we were able to divert quite a lot of our exports to Europe and North America in the face of disappearing markets in the immediate region was of course part of the economic salvation of Australia at that particular time.
And of course it';s a matter of very great encouragement to us that in now changed circumstances and recovering economies in our part of the world that we are once again rebuilding many of the markets that disappeared during those couple of very difficult years.
But the stability of the investment climate in this country of course we regard as very important. And that means you need to have a government and to have a climate in which it is possible to continue to undertake desired economic reform and economic change.
We';ve had a great deal of debate in recent weeks in Australia through the courtesy of the World Economic Forum about two issues. One of them about globalisation and one of them about this rather false dichotomy between the old and the new economy. And I use that expression 'false dichotomy'; quite advisedly because there is in my view, and it';s a proposition I';ve put on numerous occasions in the past, there is in my view a false divide a false dichotomy. What really matters is the use to which a nation and the use to which a company puts modern technology particularly information technology.
I am, as I believe the leaders of all modern industrialised nations should be, quite a student of the speeches of Dr Alan Greenspan the Chairman of the American Federal Reserve system, a remarkable figure in the economic life of the world if ever there has been one. And his observations about the value of technology, his observations about the extent to which investment in technology and the use of technology has boosted the productivity of the United States'; economy and thereby contributed to the remarkable years of economic growth in the United States I think are compulsory reading for all of us who are concerned about the operation of our own economies. And many of the things he says about the United States can be adapted very readily to the Australian experience.
His observations too about the importance of the flexibility of labour markets are in my view compelling arguments in favour of the Australian Government';s continued pursuit of further reform of workplace and industrial relations. Because it is an interesting fact that those economies which have freed their labour markets more than others have generated more jobs and experience higher levels of economic growth. And one of the astonishing things about the United States compared with the European Union is in the area of job generation. And the extent to which the United States has generated so many jobs over a comparable period of time compared with relatively more modest performances by the European Union I think does owe something to the fact that the labour markets of the United States and to a lesser extent but none the less to a marked extent better than the European Union with the possible exception of the United Kingdom has been the Australian experience as well.
So the investment climate in Australia is of course something that a government has at the forefront of its thinking in all the policy decisions it takes. It is why we pursued very vigorously polices of taxation reform, industrial relations reform taking the view that the best thing that we can do for the investment climate in Australia is to create a generically attractive and generically strong economy. That does not gainsay the importance of specifically targeted policies or approaches. And Invest Australia where we have a targeted approach in certain areas where a particular proposition meet certain criteria then some special assistance will be given provided they satisfy rigorous tests.
And I want to acknowledge here the presence of Mr Fergus Ryan the Investment Coordinator, Special Projects Investment Coordinator and the work that he';s undertaken and the work of Invest Australia because not only is it important to have a generically strong economy but it is also very important where appropriate to recognise that on occasion some specific action by the government is needed to make that vital bit of difference in the end in relation to the attraction of a chunk of investment into this country.
We have, as I said a moment ago, heard a great deal in recent weeks about globalisation. And there are a number of false views about globalisation. One of those is analysed very effectively in the latest addition of the London Economist which took apart the notion that there is something irreversible about globalisation. You may think that but in reality there is nothing irreversible about it and that it';s incumbent on those in government and the corporate sector who believe in the long term benefits of globalisation to the economies of the world, it';s important that they never lose the opportunity to argue the advantages.
If you look at the economies of the world, you look at the remarkable transformation since 1960 of the Korean economy when it';s third best export was wigs to an economy now which is robust and strong and a tremendous export performer by any measure. You look at all of the economies of the Asian Pacific region and you can see a clear difference between those that have embraced globalisation and thereby enhanced the living standards of their populations and those who haven';t.
And the arguments when you analyse them in favour of globalisation as a way of lifting the living standards of the poorer countries of the world those arguments are very compelling. I mean, to give you a very simple example of the value - if I can put it that way - or the cost is a better way of describing it of the trade protection policies of the richest countries in the world have a far greater impact by factors of seven to thirteen-fold of a far greater impact on the economies of the developing world than do their levels of official development aid.
And those people who run around either in the streets or who write in the columns of newspapers or through other news outlets arguing that the cause of the poor in the world is aided by going back to a more protectionist approach to trade completely misread the reality and completely misunderstand what has happened to the world over the last thirty to forty years.
But can I say to you that it is a superficially attractive argument that you help the poor by re-erecting barriers, that in some way or other globalisation is only for rich countries. It';s a superficially attractive argument, it is intellectually false, it';s morally wrong and there';s an obligation on those of us who believe very strongly in the benefits for the world economies of globalisation to argue with greater passion and fervour the advantages of it.
But ladies and gentlemen tonight is very much about saying to you how much the country I have the privilege of being prime minister of is open for business. A country that has long been nourished economically by foreign investment and the history of the developed countries of the world is a history of recognising that at every stage of your development you need large amounts of foreign investment. We are a country that has a very stable legal and economic system. We';re a country that has been willing to undertake major reforms. We are a country that recognises that interconnection of the world economies. We are, as Mark said, a great devourer of new technology. And we are a country that is not misled by the false dichotomy between old and new economies. We are proudly a nation that has long derived a lot of export income from our agriculture and our mining industries. And the farming and mining sectors of Australia are amongst the most efficient within those sectors around the world.
And no Australian prime minister would be doing his duty without lamenting in the context of any trade or economic speech the fact that the trading system of the world still remains loaded against the efficient agricultural performers of this country. Not only are we denied access to markets but we find that the existing world trade organisational rules work in favour of other agricultural exporters to the detriment of this country.
But tonight ladies and gentlemen is an opportunity for me to say to all of you who are thinking of investing in Australia that we are in every sense of the word open for business. We are able to cooperate across party political lines in the national interest. It wouldn';t have escaped the notice of many of you here tonight that the Olympic Games are being conducted in Sydney which is a state Labor government with the total and enthusiastic support and involvement of a federal Coalition government.
When it comes to promoting the interests of this country as you';ve seen on the sporting field in the last few days you will see in the business world and on the business field that we put aside other differences and we unite in the national interest. The national interest of this country has been fervently and passionately on display over the last week.
I would like you to take away the belief that when it comes to the business playing field we can be just as passionate and fervent and competitive and committed and we are. And Invest Australia is a tangible demonstration of that and I believe it';s a very important part of the armoury of promoting this country around the world for what it is - not only a marvellous place in which to live and to have the privilege of being a citizen of, but also a country in which companies from around the world can invest in hope, with great security, with a great sense of stability and as you are all entitled to do with the proper and reasonable expectation of making and retaining a very good profit.
Thank you.
[ends]