E&OE...................................................................................................
Mr Ian Causley, Mr Mayor, ladies and gentlemen.
It's great to be here in Lismore. It's great to be here as
part of a week long visit to rural and regional areas of Australia. A
visit that is designed to reinforce many of the understandings I have
of the different challenges in regional Australia but also an opportunity
for me to explain face-to-face without the intervention of others and
to answer directly the concerns of people who live in the regions of Australia.
Right at the moment this country at a general national level is experiencing
strong economic growth. We may have had from the Reserve Bank an interest
rate increase yesterday but let me point out even after that increase
that the average housing loan in this country will be $266 a month lower
than what it was in March of 1996 when the Government I lead came to office.
We do have nationally much lower unemployment than we had four years
ago. We have generated about 580,000 more jobs in Australia over the last
four years. We have seen our budget deficit disappear. We have seen a
very strong growth in investment even in the areas of greatest unemployment
difficulty and I acknowledge that the north coast of New South Wales has
some of the nation's highest areas of unemployment. I acknowledge
that. And that, of course, as you all know has been the case for a long
time. It's not a state of affairs, we'll come to questions in
a minute and I'll be very happy to devote far more time to questions
than I will to my speech, but it's important that I have an opportunity
of putting the Government's position and then I'll be happy
to try and answer your questions.
So I acknowledge that there are areas of unemployment which are higher
than the rest and that has been the case for a long time. Higher unemployment
in the north coast of New South Wales didn't arrive in March of 1996.
In fact the absolute level of unemployment here now is lower than what
is was then but it's much too high and we would like to see it lower.
And over the past few days I have received a lot of messages from people
in rural Australia. Some of those messages are of great hope and optimism
and show a determination on the part of many communities to try and turn
things around of their own volition.
On the other hand, some of the messages are of despair and concern particularly
in relation to the maintenance of basic government services. And it's
my responsibility as Prime Minister to see that the legitimate demands
of rural communities regarding Commonwealth Government services are met.
And for that reason I have taken on board the concerns that have been
expressed to me here in Lismore and in other areas. And I do want to echo
what Ian Causley said in relation to job placement services.
It is true that Employment National didn't do as well out of the
second job tender contract as it did out of the first one. But it is not
true as has been implied by the local newspaper here and by some of the
Sydney newspapers that that means that there are fewer employment services
in the bush or in Lismore than there were before. My advice is that under
the old dispensation you had one CES. You have four job providers at present
under the first tender and under the new system you are going to have
seven permanent ones and two outreach ones. By any measure that is an
increase in the services available, not a decrease. That means there are
more opportunities and more choice for the unemployed in this part of
Australia to get help to find a job.
Now, I don't pretend that that's going to solve the unemployment
but I do believe that it's important if we are to have an intelligent
debate and if we are to share our concern about such a thing as unemployment
we should get our facts correct. I know the importance of services and
I know that for many smaller communities the maintenance of those services
is very important.
There's a lot of debate at the present time regarding the new taxation
system. I want you to know that we remain absolute in our resolve to implement
the new taxation system from the 1st of July. And we are in
favour of the new taxation system for one reason alone and that is when
it is introduced in full it will be good for Australia. That is why, it
will be good for Australia. It will. It will be good for Australia. It's
very easy, of course, as I said last night and I have said at every gathering
as I have gone around Australia it is very easy to mount an individual
criticism of one or other individual item in the tax system. You can mount
an argument in relation to individual items very easily but you have to
look at the whole policy. You have to look at the fact that it will deliver
reductions of $12 billion in personal income tax. [Interjection] I'll
tell you what it will do, sir, it will result in 80 per cent to the Australian
taxpayer community, and that is the people who earn less than $50,000
a year, being on a top marginal tax rate of no more than 30 cents in the
dollar against 47 cents now. That's what it will do.
And I don't think anybody in their wildest imagination could suggest
that people earning less than $50,000 a year are rich and the fact that
80 per cent 80 per cent of the Australian community are
going to be on that top marginal rate of 30 cents in the dollar is an
enormous improvement on the 43 cents odd and indeed 47 for some that exists
now.
But it goes further than that. For the regions a particular benefit will
be the fact that it will produce a reduction via the cut in diesel excise
a major reduction in the price of fuel throughout Australia. It's
going to cut about $3 to $4 billion off the cost of fuel all around Australia
- $3 to $4 billion. And because the GST is not going to apply to exports,
it's not going to apply to exports, that will be of enormous benefit
to rural communities because it will make our exports cheaper.
Overall, it's going to lead to a reduction in business operating
costs. I mean, take petrol alone. Because you will be able to get a rebate
of GST paid on petrol bought for business purposes it's going to
mean that petrol used in a business, wherever it might be used, will be
on average about seven cents a litre cheaper than it is now because you
can't get a rebate if you use petrol for business purposes on the
excise component of your tax.
So that is an illustration. When you analyse the totality, ladies and
gentlemen, you analyse the totality of the reform you will see that it
will in overall terms be of enormous benefit to this country. And that
is why the Government is persevering. That is why we took the tax reform
package to the Australian people at the last election. That is why it
has now become the law of the Commonwealth and that is why we are going
to introduce it on the 1st of July. We recognise that there
will be implementation detail. We recognise that there will be implementation
challenges. We know that people will need advice and information and assistance
with the new system and a large amount of Commonwealth Government resources
is being made available to ensure that people are fully advised, fully
informed and fully assisted regarding the implementation details of the
new taxation system.
The last thing I want to say in my introductory remarks and then I'll
be very happy to take your questions is this : that I recognise that although
the country as a whole is strong and is doing well and is outperforming
most other countries and was strong enough economically to avoid being
badly hurt by the Asian economic downturn I recognise that despite that
there are some parts of Australia that are missing out on that. I acknowledge
that. And to the best of our capacity it is our desire to see that those
sections of the Australian community who are missing out get a fairer
deal.
I can't and I won't attempt to guarantee that every part of
the country can equally share in national economic prosperity. That is
from a practical point of view unachievable. And it is unachievable from
a...it is achievable for people who have an equality of opportunity
but in the nature of things there will be variations. But people are entitled
to have a better share of the national economic benefit than in some communities
they are getting.
And part of what I have been doing over the last week and part of what
the Government continues to do is to listen to and respond to the concerns
of rural and regional communities. But in the process of doing that it's
also important to point out that it's not all doom and gloom in rural
Australia. There are many parts of the regions that are doing well. There
are many communities that have turned things around. There are many businesses
that have taken new opportunities and won new markets. I can name many,
I can name the cotton industry in Bourke, I can name small businesses
in many parts of the coastal areas of Australia, I can name the tea industry,
Madura that I visited in the Tweed. I can talk about the strength of many
small businesses along the coast of New South Wales. It's important
not only to acknowledge the adversity and the difficulty but also to recognise
that there are many good news stories as well in rural areas of Australia
and it gives a completely distorted picture to represent all of it as
doom and gloom.
But, ladies and gentlemen, I thank Ian Causley for the invitation to
be in Lismore. I welcome very much the opportunity of a public gathering
like this to hear the views and to add to the questions of the people
of Lismore and I'll be delighted to take your questions, one at a
time if I may.
[ends]
Question and Answer
session