Subjects: volunteerism; Country Women's Association; dairy deregulation;
E&OE.................................
Thank you very much Alex, the Mayor and Lady Mayoress, to my Cabinet colleague and friend and former Federal Member for this area, the continuing member for Wide Bay Warren Truss, ladies and gentlemen.
This is quite a big meeting and it's great to have an opportunity of moving around and meeting people who represent one of the great Australian traditions. And that is the great Australian volunteer tradition. There are a couple of things I want to say about issues of particular concern to Gympie and of particular concern to this part of Queensland and Australia.
But before I do that can I express on my behalf and on behalf of your fellow Australians the tremendous admiration we all have for those countless number of volunteers and volunteer organisations that are the real cement of Australian society. Australia has the greatest volunteer tradition of any country on earth. It was marvellously on display for the rest of the world at the Sydney Olympics. But when you look back over the history of our country it is not surprising that we developed the great volunteer tradition. There we were separated by vast distances with a small population having to pitch in and bond together in order to achieve common goals. And often the common goal was bare survival. And on top of that we are by nature, thank heavens, a relatively classless society with a great egalitarian spirit. Some even dare to call that egalitarian spirit mateship. And that spirit of mateship and egalitarianism means that we work together in order to tackle and to solve common problems. And without the people who keep the local charities going; without the contribution of those thousands of Australian parents on Saturday morning who get up early to make sure their children can get to their sporting fixtures; without the help of such other wonderful organisations that keep the community going, and can I on this occasion pay special reference to that great organisation the Country Women's Association that of course has provided. yes, let's given them a hand. And of course the electorate of Fairfax which is named after the founder of that great organisation, Lady Fairfax. And it's an organisation that has represented the concerns and the aspirations and the views communicated so effectively by women in country rural Australia, the bush, whatever name depending on what part of Australia you come from, you want to give to non-metropolitan Australia. And I want to thank the members of that organisation and that organisation for the tremendous role that they have played in keeping together the social infrastructure of non-metropolitan Australia over such a long period of time.
I don't pretend ladies and gentlemen when I come to a community such as this, I don't pretend for a moment that you've had it easy. And I know that within the framework of a national economic outlook which is fundamentally very strong, indeed stronger than it's been for a generation with low inflation and much lower interest rates. And having repaid a large amount of the government debt that we had five years ago, and having for rural people a particularly competitive exchange rate and having undertaken quite a number of changes to our industrial relations system and our taxation system that were long overdue. I know that there are within that framework communities in Australia who are not doing as well as other parts of our country. And it's the responsibility of the government, it's the responsibility of the government I lead at a federal level, and it's the responsibility of governments at a state level and at a local government level to try within the limit of our resources to deal with some of the particular issues that communities such as Gympie and other communities in this part of Queensland have to face. We've endeavoured to do that. You have a higher level of unemployment than the national average. Part of that is due to long term structural change to the industries in your area. It is also due to the negative effect over long years of bad practices, particularly in the area of industrial relations.
I know that your district has been affected by the process of dairy deregulation. I know that. A number of people have spoken to me about it this morning. And that's one of the values of encounters like this, it gives people an opportunity to tell me first hand how it's affected them. It gives people an opportunity to put forward some ideas about how some of the assistance that is now being delivered might be redirected.
I want to say in relation to dairy deregulation, of course State Governments control the quota system in relation to milk, they control the question of whether you have a regulated industry or a deregulated industry. The Federal Government's role is not to decide whether or not there should be regulation or deregulation. We don't have the power to do that. But we do have the power to do what we have done, and that is to impose a national underpinning to ease the pain of deregulation for people who are being adversely affected by it. I'm very pleased to say that partly and certainly importantly through the advocacy that Warren Truss brought to the Cabinet as the Minister responsible, it was possible for us to put in place a $1.8 billion dairy assistance package funded by a consumer levy which has financed the adjustment process. Now deregulation has had a differential impact on parts of Australia. In some parts of Australia diary deregulation has been warmly received and has brought great benefits to dairy farmers. That applies particularly in the case of Victoria and Northern Tasmania, and some other parts of Australia. And it should be remembered in relation to dairy deregulation that once the dairy farmers in Victoria decided that they were going to sell across the state borders of Australia there was no way that a process of deregulation could have been stopped, because under our constitution free trade between the states is absolutely guaranteed. And there was no way that any State Government in Australia, in Queensland or in New South Wales or Western Australia would have had the constitutional power to stop that happening. So we were faced with a situation of whether we had deregulation willy-nilly or we had deregulation that was conducted in as orderly a process as possible with Federal Government help. We were presented with the reality of deregulation by the decisions taken by dairy farmers in other parts of Australia and through the acquiescence after a process of consultation by State Governments in that process. And we said okay, we'll provide some assistance at a national level. And we have done that through the levy. And more recently Warren has announced some further measures that address some of the particular areas of difficulty and pain. I know it affects quite a number of dairy farmers in this area, and a number of dairy farmers in northern New South Wales and in some parts of Western Australia.
And part of the process of trying to cushion the impact of deregulation, we decided to establish a dairy regional assistance programme. And that was designed to fund projects all around Australia, in many cases to provide alternative employment and business opportunities for communities who were affected by the process of dairy deregulation. And I'm therefore pleased to announce here in Gympie this morning that out of that fund we're going to make available an amount of $1.6 million to the Australian owned meat processor Nolan Meats. This is going to finance a five-year extension and expansion of that company's abattoir here in Gympie. And it's going to provide greater training opportunities for workers and a significant number of additional jobs in the region. The project represents the start of a $20 million, five-year expansion programme for the abattoir. And up to 150 permanent and 30 contract jobs are expected to be created for the shire and surrounding regions as a result of this expansion.
As many of you will know Nolan Meats abattoir is a modern well equipped facility, and there are approximately 114 dairy farms in the surrounding area. Now this is not going to of itself make a difference to some of those people who have been affected. But it will make a difference to the morale and the spirit of the community. It is more than a token, it is a significant practical contribution towards helping a successful local industry, and also recognising a very important fact. There are some changes in our community that we can't stop occurring because habits change, the forces of economic activity in other parts of the country have an impact on what is happening here, or in other parts of the world have an impact of what is happening in Australia.
We can't stop that. No government can. No political party can. And any political leader who comes to you and says I can put my hand up like King Canute and stop it is deluding you and deluding himself or herself as well. But there is something a government can do, and that is to provide assistance and to manage the process of change and to help people out as they adjust to that change. And one of the important pledges I give to you because you are in many ways very representative of communities in Australia that have to grapple with the impact of economic change. There are many parts of Australia where economic change leaves people unaffected. Their jobs go on, their businesses go on and their prosperity goes on. You are at the cutting edge, you are affected by it. Many of you are associated with industries that have been changed beyond all recognition by the way in which our economy has developed and the impact of global forces on our economy. Now what I can say to you is the government is very sensitive to that and we are prepared, as demonstrated by the announcement I have made to give assistance to communities to help them adjust to the process of change.
And when you add those sorts of policies to what I might call the generic economic policies we have - we have much lower interest rates in this country now than we used to have a few years ago. And I haven't come along here to make a violently partisan speech because this is a community gathering. But I have to say in defence of the economic climate we now have in this country we do have interest rates that are the lowest they've been for 30 or 40 years. We have tackled some of the industrial relations deficiencies this country had a few years ago. We have reformed the waterfront. We have brought about very big changes in areas like that. And importantly we have paid off the nation's debt. I mean one of the things that I am very proud of is that the government debt of this country is about the lowest you will find anywhere in the world. And the good thing about that is we're not burdening the future generations of Australians, the young Australians I see as I move around this hall, we're not burdening them with interest bills. We are now spending $4 billion a year less on paying off debt as a nation than five years ago. That $4 billion hasn't gone into my pocket, hasn't gone into Peter Costello's pocket, it's gone on things like defence and roads and expenditure on salinity and on the Natural Heritage Trust. And over the last few months we have made a lot of announcements. We've invested a lot of money in Australia's future. I believe in spending more money on the defence of this country. I think the defence of this country is very important. I believe in spending more money on local roads - we've provided another $1.6 billion to local councils for local roads. I believe in investing more money in the Natural Heritage Trust. I believe very strongly in providing the additional $1 billion over five years that we're going to provide. I believe in the extra $500 million we've put in over five years to get more doctors into the country. And also the additional money that's gone into getting practice nurses into rural areas of Australia. The list is very long. They are all important, long overdue investments in the future of this country. And they have in part been made possible because we don't have such a big interest bill. And people who run businesses, and there'd be hundreds of you here today, know that there's nothing worse than the money you feel you've got to pay or devote towards the interest payments on your loans, if only you could invest that in the future operation of your business you'd feel a lot happier.
So ladies and gentlemen, my message to you today is first and foremost a message of gratitude and a message of admiration on behalf of the Australian government and the Australian community to all of those countless thousands of Australians who devote their lives to making the lives of others happier and more fulfilled and more purposeful. My other message to you is that I understand and the government I lead understands that within an overall scene of a strong Australian economy, an Australia that is more respected and is stronger and more secure in the world than it's been for a long time, I do understand that some communities are not sharing to the same degree as others. And I say to you that not only do I understand that but in various ways my government is endeavouring with particularly policies to address those difficulties. It's not easy if you're in a region that is affected by economic change and by the departure of support for one industry unless there are replacements. And I know that you do face in this community particular challenges. I'd like you to know that I lead a government that is sympathetic to that. But more than being sympathetic to it, it's a government that is trying as I hope the announcement illustrated today to try and do something in a practical way to address those challenges.
Can I say to all of you again the best thing about being Prime Minister of Australia is the opportunity it gives me on a regular basis to meet and talk to and listen to countless thousands of Australians in their local communities. It is something that inspires and enthuses and invigorates me on every occasion. And this morning has been no exception. To have the opportunities you can in this great democracy of ours to move around and to meet people from all parts of the community, to hear their advice, to try and answer their questions, to shake their hands, to share a word of sympathy and encouragement is a very very important part of the privilege of being Prime Minister of this wonderful country. And I want to thank you very warmly for the greeting you've given me this morning and the opportunity that has come my way to meet you. And finally can I say in Warren Truss you have a great and articulate and energetic representative. And can I say in your new representative Alex Somylay you have an equally articulate, energetic and enthusiastic representative. They're two really good blokes to use the Australian vernacular and I couldn't commend them to you too warmly.
Thank you.
[ends]