Subjects: Weary Dunlop memorial; economic management; industrial relations reform; health policy; tax reform; Labor Party's lack of policy; road funding.
E&OE................................
Thank you very much Sharman for those very warm and generous words of welcome. Denis Napthine, the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria, Sophie Panopoulos the Liberal Party candidate for Indi, Ian Carson the State President of the Party in Victoria, my other parliamentary colleagues, fellow Liberals and in particular my good friend and former parliamentary colleague, Ewan Cameron, the former member who I understand is in the audience.
Benalla does have something of a place in my recollections of the time that I've been Prime Minister. I certainly do remember that remarkable Sunday morning when I had the privilege of speaking on behalf of all Australians, and particularly although I was not of that generation myself, that heroic generation of Australians who sacrificed and suffered so much to defend our country in the dark days of World War II and the inspiration of Weary Dunlop lives on. And I was very warmed this morning to be approached by a seven or eight year old boy with the wonderful Sue Ebury biography of Weary Dunlop that I have read and I commend to all of you as one of the finest pieces I have read and to be asked to autograph and endorse that book and I would have thought for a young person growing up in this country the inspiration of his sacrifice and forgiveness and far-sightedness is very much a role model, indeed a lodestar for the behaviour of people in the years ahead.
I congratulate the three electorates of Indi and Murray and McEwen for putting together this special country conference. It's an opportunity for me to come again to regional Victoria, where I was last week visiting the electorates of Gippsland and McEwen and I'm no stranger to these parts. It's an opportunity to talk about some of the things the Government has done and is doing, but more particularly as this is a Liberal Party conference, and this is the beginning of a year that is going to be very important for us politically, it's an opportunity for me to define the choice that faces the Australian people over the next twelve months.
You know Government goes in phases. I've found that to be my experience over the last five years. You win office after particularly a long period in Government and you set about tackling the really difficult problems that you inherited and we inherited an accumulated national debt of $80-$90 billion from the former finance minister, Mr Beazley. We inherited, I believe, a very confused electorate regarding issues such as native title. We inherited a welfare system, that although it had some very, very good, bipartisan underpinnings of supporting a safety net that everybody believes is important and part of the Australian way of life, we inherited many, but nonetheless, a welfare system that needed some reforms and of course we inherited an industrial relations system that was run for the trade union movement to the great detriment of small business. And therefore in our early years we set about changing these things. We set about in the face of fierce opposition from the Labor Party to get rid of our budget deficit. I mean it's one thing to leave you with an $80-$90 billion debt, pretend you had nothing to do with it but it's a remarkable form of political cheek to then turn around and try and stop you eliminating the debt. And when you have eliminated the debt, say oh you really ought to spend it again, and that is basically what has happened over the last few years.
We spent our early years getting the house very much in order but we also set about some very major reforms and the industrial relations reforms which have done so much to increase the productivity of this country are one of the finest achievements of the government I've led over the last five years.
I want to pay tribute to the job that Peter Reith did as the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. He did it against very difficult odds. No minister of mine can I tell you was subject to more intimidation and more outright thuggery than Peter Reith faced at the time of his waterfront reform in 1998.
I can remember over the last twenty years going to Liberal Party gathering after Liberal Party gathering, all around Australia, going in to business gatherings and being told "when are you people going to have the guts to do something about the waterfront because it's crippling the productivity of this country". Peter Reith did something about the waterfront. He earned the lasting abuse and the enmity of the trade union movement. He ought to have the lasting gratitude of the producers of this country because we now have a more efficient waterfront and we are now achieving the goals and the crane rates and so forth that we set out to achieve.
But that industrial relations reform has laid the ground work of one of the really important achievements of this government and that is that ordinary wage and salary earners in Australia are now better off than what they were under the Hawke and Keating Governments. And one of the crowning ironies of Australian politics is that we have looked after the average worker far better than the party that is meant to represent them. The reality of course is that we represent them and represent them better because we represent all Australians. And if there's one thing that silences the Labor Party - it takes a lot to silence them in the parliament - if there is one thing that silences them more than ever it is when you read out a list of statistics on living standards. You remind them that on a $100,000 mortgage in 1990 you would have to pay $1,400 a month in interest. $1,400 a month because interest rates hit 17 percent. It is now about $680 a month.
In the four years we've been in Government, as a result of the fall in interest rates that occurred the other day, the average homebuyer in Australia is paying $250 a month less in interest. On top of that, we have the real wages of Australian workers increasing and the increase is not off the back of unsustainable high inflation, they're increasing off the back of higher productivity and we've got higher productivity because we have a better workplace relations system.
So not only do they have lower interest bills, they have higher wages and on top of that they are able to go back into private health insurance. I mean private health insurance was allowed to bleed to death under the Labor Party. They wanted it to die. They wanted the patient to die. They didn't believe in it. Carmen Lawrence was ideologically opposed to private health insurance. Her predecessor, Graeme Richardson, said they'd have to do something about it or it'll die. And when we came into office, private health insurance was going down like that and if we hadn't done something about it, if we hadn't pumped a big subsidy into, if we hadn't introduced lifetime community cover, if we hadn't given people the incentive to go back into private health insurance then it would have disappeared altogether and there would have been an unsustainable burden placed upon the public hospital system of this country. And we did that. We did that in the face of huge opposition from the Labor Party. Kim Beazley and Jenny Macklin said it was a gift to the wealthy, that it was a flawed policy, that it was a waste of money. And they attacked it month after month and they said we were filling the coffers of the private health insurance funds. And then, all of a sudden, although not in the dead of night, but under the cover of Cathy Freeman's wonderful victory in the 400 metres at the Sydney Olympic games, they had a meeting of the shadow cabinet - I think in Ballarat? And it was about half past ten that night they put out a press statement saying the Labor Party is not going to reverse the private health insurance policies of the government if it is returned to office. I think if you really want to bury something choose the night Cathy Freeman wins the 400 metres. And that's basically what they've done.
So we had this journey. We've tackled the problems, we've reformed industrial relations. I think we've delivered a stronger health system. And of course before the last election we put before the Australian people a plan to restructure Australia's tax system. That was risky. I remember when I told the Liberal Party's pollster that we were going to do it. He almost had a heart attack. He said you can't do that. Well I said we're going to announce it and we're going to do it because it does need to be done. And it was risky and we lost some colleagues in the process that we'd won in 1996. But this country has needed tax reform for a long time. We won and once again we faced opposition from the Labor Party. At every turn they Labor Party opposed it. They hoped and prayed that the thing would be defeated in the 1998 election. They then hoped and prayed that if we couldn't get it through the Parliament with the support of Senator Harradine they'd talk the Democrats out of negotiating with us and it'd all fall over. But having got it through the Parliament they then banked their all on it being a disaster on the 1st of July last year and ever since then they've run a totally negative campaign.
And you've watched in relation to every single thing we've done a completely negative Opposition. I've dwelt for a few moments on that my friends because as we come into this election year, this election year is about defining a choice for the Australian people. Elections are not referendums on governments. They are decisions about alternative governments. And what the Australian people have to do is have a look at the alternatives. They might not like everything that we have done. I know that. Not all of them may like me. I know that. That goes with the territory and I know there are many things that I stand for that are are disliked by some Australians but at least I stand for something. At least I believe in a certain kind of Australia.
But I'm now faced by an opponent who boasts about the fact that he's been a minister longer than I have, and that's true, but that really proves my argument - what does he stand for. He's had all of those years to identify himself to the Australian people. He's had all of those years to develop a commitment to a particular way of leading this country. When I returned to the Opposition leadership in January 1995 people knew that I stood for industrial relations reform, for family tax relief, for privatisation, for supporting the private health system. They knew that. I have to say to you I don't know what my opponent stands for. He talks vaguely about a commitment to some areas of education but we've produced the policies. The Innovation Statement released the week before last is the most comprehensive commitment and investment to science and innovation that this country's seen from any government. I mean we've done something about it.
They talk vaguely sometimes about the environment. As Sharman pointed out, not only through the National Heritage Trust but also the commitment that we've made to salinity, we're actually doing something about it. Salinity and water quality is one of the biggest long-term problems that this country faces. If we don't do something about it in two out of five days in 20 years time the drinking water of the people of Adelaide will be unfit for human consumption. That is a deplorable thing to contemplate in a modern sophisticated country such as Australia.
We produced a defence white paper at the end of last year which commits us to a $13 billion dollar increase in defense spending over the next decade and which is the most comprehensive blueprint for improving the defense of this country that any government has produced since World War II. Now are tackling the long term problems of this country and we are faced by a policy lazy opposition whose sole tactic is to feed off inevitable unhappiness the electorate has on particular issues. There's no government in the history of mankind that has ever been completely popular all of the time on every issue. That's political utopia and none of us are going to achieve that. And I know that there are always, for governments, difficult areas. And I know some of the problems in regional Australia and I've focussed very heavily since the end of the last election, after the last election, over the last two-and-a-half years in visiting regional Australia and listening to people.
But not just listening. That's important but it's only half the job. You then have to do something. You have to recognise that there are some things that we can do. We can't stop the long-term decline in commodity prices driven by world economic influences. But we can do something about ensuring that services that are important to people where possible are retained or even returned. We can recognise as we did last year in the budget that the availability of health services, of general practitioners are very important and put more resources into it. We can recognise as we have done over the past 12 months the need to have more nursing home beds in regional Australia. And then of course we can recognise the sensitivity of fuel prices to people, not only in regional Australia but everywhere. Now let me say to you I understand how unhappy people are about the high price of petrol. I don't like it. I wish I could wave a magic wand and bring the price of petrol down by 10 or 15 cents a litre because that's the kind of relief I think people want. The only way that's going to happen is if there's a sustained fall in the world price of crude oil. If you cut the excise by 10 or 15 cents a litre, what are you looking at there, something in the order of $300 million to $400 million for every cent, and you do the sums.
We had a look before Christmas at the possibility of postponing the February increase in excise. I know that's been talked about and I know there are a lot of people that would have liked to have seen it happen. And that would have involved something in the order of $500 million a year. We decided it was better to put an extra $400 million a year over four years into road funding. All of that road funding will go into local roads. None of it goes into national highways or to roads of national importance. All of it goes into road funding. For example here in Indi the Alpine Shire will get $1.6 million, the Delatite Shire which is partly Indi's, partly in the joining electorate, $3.4 million, the Indigo Shire $2.5 million, the Moira Shire $4.8 million, and so the list goes on. And the reason I mention that my friends is that we did look at the possibility of having a freeze in the excise and we decided it was a better investment to put it into road funding.
While on the subject of road funding let me say something briefly about an item that was on the media last night and in the papers this morning about this alleged shortfall of $2.9 billion. Can I tell you there has been no under spend of $2.9 billion. There's been no underspend of even $2 in relation to the money that was economically and responsibly available for the expenditure on roads. And when I here Mr Bracks running around saying I've got to give another billion dollars to Victoria what he's really saying is that I should take a billion dollars out of what I've given Victoria for schools and hospitals and local road funding and state road funding and exchange it with a cheque that I give to him for road funding. That makes no sense at all. The idea that there's some $2.9 billion sitting there that hasn't been spent already on other roads is absolutely plain dead wrong. And I make that very very clear. This is an argument, essentially an accountant's argument about classification. It is not an argument about whether the government has short changed the motorists of Australia.
I would love to be in the capacity to both spend more money on roads which we announced before Christmas and also reduce excise. But if you do that you've got to ask the inevitable question where's the money coming from. I don't think we can afford to do both of those things and we decided to put more money into roads. That was our decision. And once again some of you will agree with that decision and some of you will think it was wrong. That's the nature of things in a democratic community.
So ladies and gentlemen we do face over the next year as Liberals a very big political challenge. Winning a third term is always difficult. I never take the Australian people for granted. I won't complacently assume I'm going to win as Mr Beazley did at his first press interview after his holiday when he said to the interviewer on the morning program he said you've got to understand, he said, that I expect to be in the Lodge in March of next year. Now that struck me as a piece of arrogance. I mean I don't expect to be in the Lodge in March of next year, I hope I am. I don't know. None of us do. That's in the hands of the Australian people. I'll work very hard to be in the Lodge but I can't, and I wouldn't conceitedly say to you oh I'm going to be in the Lodge in March of next year. That's the mindset of somebody who thinks he can lazily cruise to an election just criticising the government and never offering any alternative. Now I think we have to make certain that the Australian people understand that they have a government that has done things and believes in things led by a person who's done things and believes in things, and a policy lazy opposition who believes that all you've got to do is criticise and carp and be negative and then eventually some how or another you'll stumble across the line. Now I don't believe in the end that is what the Australian people will want for their Government.
But we have a very big responsibility all of us, to work very hard to ensure that we get a third term. Because if we get a third term we can be certain that in a slightly more challenging world economic environment this country will be better managed, economically. There's no doubt that we have, I think, properly, earned respect and credit around the world for the way the economy has been managed. And Peter Costello in particular as Treasurer has done a fantastic job in the work that he's done as Treasurer. And we work together. We don't always get everything right, but if you look at the big picture, the economy stared down the Asian economic down turn, we have low inflation, again we have falling interest rates, we've got the budget in surplus, we've reformed the tax system, reformed the industrial relations system. And we've made it very clear that we are responding to the concerns of small business about the simplification of the Business Activity Statement. We're working on that right at the moment and that's going to be fixed, I've made that clear, we're going to fix that. There were always going to be some transitional challenges, there were always going to be some fine tuning, but what you do is you listen to what people say, you don't change it every month. You allow people to have the experience of one or two forms and when it's clear that some simplification and change is needed you talk to people and you announce the changes. And that's what we're going to be doing very shortly.
But ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for all of the support that you have given us over the years. I can't speak too warmly of the members that you already have in the electorates that are here today. Fran Bailey who has done a fantastic job as the Member for McEwen, a difficult electorate, marginal, enormous focus from the Labor Party, great Labor Party resources being put in to try and beat her. Another great woman, Sharman who has done a first class job with so many skills in different areas since she became the Member for Murray in 1996 and as a Parliamentary Secretary. And Sophie, who's office I opened today is the Liberal Party standard bearer in Indi. I think she is going to be a terrific Member for Indi. She brings enthusiasm, conviction and advocacy skills which are so very important. People increasingly I find are looking for somebody who can transmit sincere commitment to what they believe in and not just the latest public relations blurb their party has given them. And I find that some of the cynicism in the Australian community about main stream political parties is that there doesn't seem to be any flesh and blood about the way in which some members of mainstream political parties articulate their ideas. You can never please everybody, I've found that out, very much. There are always a lot of people who are going to disagree with what you believe in and what you do and what you stand for. But the most important thing in political life is to have values and beliefs and go out there and stand for them and argue for them even if you don't always persuade people of the wisdom. And that is the approach that I've tried to bring to Government, I'm very proud of what the Government has done over the last five years. I think we've made Australia a stronger, better, prouder, more respected country, and that's very important. We've got a lot of fight left in us. I think we are a much better Government than our alternative. We need your help, we need to return Fran, we need to return Sharman and we need to elect Sophie for the first time as the Member for Indi and I hope the contribution of this conference and the activities of the people gathered here today will play a very major role in that very laudable pursuit.
Thank you.
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