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Well thank you very much Barry. To you Mr Mayor, to my parliamentary
colleagues, Senator Grant Chapman and Senator Alan Ferguson, and to Mr
Graham Gunn, the local State member, ladies and gentlemen. First of all
may I thank the Mayor for his warm words of welcome. This is certainly
the first time that I've visited Quorn. If it's the first time
that a Prime Minister has visited Quorn then I feel doubly privileged
to be amongst you.
I want to say you very quickly and very simply that my visit here this
morning is part of a week long visit that paying to rural and regional
areas of Australia. Not to learn for the first time of some of the difficulties
that you face, but perhaps to learn in a little more detail of some of
the particular challenges that you face. I heard some of them from the
Mayor a moment ago and I'll no doubt hear more as I move amongst
you after I've finished my speech.
At present Australia at a national level is enjoying a fair amount of
economic prosperity. Our general economy is very strong, out budget is
in surplus, our inflation rates are low, our interest rates are low, our
business investment is high. But unfortunately not every part of the country
is sharing in the same degree that general economic strength and that
general economic bounty. And I'm acutely aware of the fact that through
no fault of many communities in Australia, through adverse climatic circumstances,
perverse world markets, the unfair trading practices of the European Union,
and in some areas of the United States, you are not getting the returns
that you deserve. Through a long term decline in other commodity prices
some of the traditional industries of this country, particularly wool,
have been placed under a great deal of strain. And that has had a compounding
affect on local communities and services have been withdrawn from some
towns, although I was pleased to hear from the Mayor that the service
level in this particular community remains very strong.
Now I don't come to you today saying that I've got an answer,
that I've got a magic wand. I'm not good enough that I don't
think any Prime Minister of this country would ever be good enough to
turn around long term changes in world commodity prices. But any Prime
Minister of this country worth his or her salt should first and foremost
understand and acknowledge that there are particular challenges and difficulties
and areas of disadvantage in some parts of the country. My obligation
to you is to better understand your problem and to try and work out ways
in which we can provide some assistance. I can't as I say turn around
commodity prices, I can't change the seasons, but I can ensure that
there is maintained at a federal government level a proper level of government
services.
We can assist in cooperation with the State government in identifying
new areas of economic activity that you may as a community be able to
undertake in order to supplement or replace some of the other areas that
are no longer as viable and as profitable. And in that context I'm
pleased to announce this morning that the federal government will out
of its rural program fund up to the tune of $200,000 a study of alternative
economic activities which may be of benefit to this community. I understand
that that program is going to be augmented with funds from the South Australian
government and I discussed that this morning in very positive terms with
Mr Rob Kerin the acting Premier of South Australia before I left Port
Lincoln. Now that is designed to see if there are areas in which new economic
activity and new economic endeavor can be embraced which may be of longer-term
benefit to this community. I can also confirm to you that the application
being made by some of the areas in this region for emergency assistance,
that the assessment of that has been completed and the recommendation
will be going to the Agriculture Minister Mr Warren Truss in the very
near future, and he'll be giving a response and making an announcement
in relation to that.
I can also assure you that not only here but as I go around other parts
of the Australian bush around regional Australia, I'll be giving
assurances about the government's commitment to the maintenance of
existing service levels at the instance of the Commonwealth Government.
And while it may not be of a particular concern to this community I know
that in many rural communities of Australia the inadequacy of.....the
inadequate numbers, not the inadequacies of the individuals, but the inadequate
numbers of general practitioners and medical services generally is an
issue of particular concern. And I want to say that I can understand the
frustration of country people who have every right to have available to
them both accessible and reasonable affordable medical services in the
same way as your fellow Australians who live in the metropolitan areas
of Australia.
Of course in acknowledging some of the challenges that exist in particular
communities I don't for a moment gainsay the fact that there are
many areas of rural Australia where there is a source of hope and optimism.
And that a lot of the regional areas of this country are doing well and
there are a lot of benefits that are flowing through from the economic
reforms of the government. And I can't let the opportunity go by
without commending to you the benefits for rural Australia of the new
taxation system that is going to come into operation on the 1st
of July. Amongst other things that new taxation system will dramatically
reduce the price of fuel in rural and regional Australia. And therefore
because many farmers rely so heavily on export income, in fact many of
them overwhelmingly, indeed exclusively on export income, it will lead
to a reduction in the price of those, the cost involved in those exports,
and therefore be of long term benefit to rural Australia.
This taxation reform plan will be of great benefit to the Australia economy.
It will not only deliver cheaper fuel and cheaper business costs, but
also will reduce the cost of exports and will also of course be of great
benefit in relation to the personal income tax cuts that are involved
And also as part of the business tax reform plan the reductions in capital
gains tax, the reductions in company tax, the increases in family benefits,
and the increases in pensions and benefits for people who are retired
from the working force. So I wouldn't want to let the opportunity
go by without saying that this is a reform that the government committed
itself to because it believed very very strongly, very very strongly indeed
that this country needed a new modern more progressive taxation system.
The last thing that I do wish to say to you of particular policy relevance
is that I know how important the provision of infrastructure in rural
Australia is. To have not only adequate roads but adequate telecommunications,
adequate information technology facilities, and to have all the other
infrastructure which is the basic obligation of the government, some times
in partnership with the private sector to provide, and that is something
that all people in the Australia community are entitled to have and are
entitled to expect. And in the speech I made on Friday in Melbourne outlining
the government's plans for the next year I linked the sale of the
rest of Telstra, which I know is criticised in some sections of the Australian
community, with the acceleration of additional infrastructure provision
in our Australian community. And to me it makes increasingly less sense
to tie up billions of dollars of public investment in a telecommunications
company when those billions of dollars of public investment could be released
to facilitate a faster rate of investment in the provision of government
infrastructure in particularly, but not only in rural and regional Australia.
And I leave that thought with you does it make more sense to invest
those billions of dollars of public money in a telecommunications company
rather than to release them to facilitate the investment at a faster rate
of additional government resources in the provision of much needed infrastructure,
not only but including information technology.
My final word to you is to make and repeat a commitment I've made
many times since becoming Prime Minister to people in rural and regional
Australia. Part of the Australian story, part of the Australian inheritance,
part of what we think of ourselves as being as Australians, is of course
the inheritance of the Australian bush, of rural Australia. And without
the preservation of that not only as a viable economic part of our community
and a massive contributor to our export income. But also as part of the
social make up and the very essence and psyche of our community, the preservation
of that is indispensable for the continuation of the kind of Australia
that I grew up to love as a child and the kind of Australia that all of
us wherever we may live in our country they love. And therefore it's
a very important thing for me personally, as well as in a political dimension
with my obligations as Prime Minister to do everything I can during my
time as Prime Minister to try and ensure that people living in the bush,
living in the regions enjoy as best and as fairly as can be the case,
the benefits of national economic strength. We can't and I don't
pretend that I can solve all of the problems, but I do understand that
they exist. I will do my best not only here but also around Australia
to better learn about them to better understand them, and to better communicate
to my colleagues some of the challenges that you face, and this morning
is an opportunity as your guest to meet you, to learn a little more of
your life here and I hope in a small way to make a contribution where
I can to improving the situation for you. Thank you very much for coming.
[Ends]