Subjects: Sophie Panopoulos; Internet Rates; Labor's lack of policy.
E&OE..................
Well Sophie, other Parliamentary colleagues, Brian Loughnane, ladies and gentlemen. I'm particularly pleased to have the opportunity on this visit to Benalla to participate in a Liberal Party rural conference here in Victoria that brings together three electorates. I'm particularly pleased to have the opportunity of opening Sophie's campaign office here in Benalla. She's a very energetic, effective Liberal Party standard bearer in this electorate and I believe that she will do extremely well, she'll win the seat and she'll go on to be a very long serving member of this district in the Federal Parliament.
I have watched her over a number of years. She has a great capacity to advocate the things she believes in. Politics is about having beliefs and having the willingness and the courage to argue those beliefs even though the going may get a bit tough and as the months go by in the year 2001, and we get closer to the election, people will more and more focus on the fact that it's going to be a choice.
When you go to an election you don't decide whether you like the Liberal Party or dislike the Liberal Party, or like the Labor Party or dislike the Labor Party, you have to make a choice. You have to decide which of the two sides of politics can better govern this country for the next three years.
We have now been in Government for almost five years and even our critics will say we've done a lot. They don't like some of what we've done but at least they acknowledge that we have done a lot. We have tried to make things better.
Sophie mentioned my visits to regional Australia. I spent a week travelling around the regions of Australia at the beginning of last year and one of the things that came through very strongly to me was the unhappiness that people felt about the inaccessibility of health services for people in some of the more remote parts of Australia and as a direct result of that we had in the Federal Budget last year a $500 million dollar programme that over years will put more general practitioners into country areas.
Likewise the announcements we made concerning road funding at the end of last year were a direct response to the concerns that people had expressed regarding the amount of money being made available for local roads. The roads built by local councils. And so it is as we go through the year where there are areas of concern, the Government will respond. But in the end our greatest responsibility is to effectively run the national economy and as we face a less certain time this year nationally than last time the quality of economic management is even more important and as the months go by there'll be more focus on our opponents.
Mr Beazley frequently says that he's been a Minister for more years than I have been. You know that's actually literally correct. He has been. He's been a minister, I think, one or two years longer when you put his career together, than I have. But that in a sense proves my point. He may have been a minister for all those years but nobody really knows what he stands for. People know what I stand for. They mightn't like it on some occasions. They may disagree as some people did outside which is their democratic right. But they know where I stand. They know what I believe in. My political opponent has had five years to tell the Australian people what he believes in and what he would do if he were to become Prime Minister and he's not taken advantage of that opportunity. Now this is going to become more and more an issue in this election year because people want to know what you believe in so they can make a decision. I know what Sophie believes in, I know that Sophie believes in the individual, Sophie believes in the right of giving people opportunities, she believes in the value of hard work, she believes in self reliance but she also believes in a society that's got to look after people less fortunate and can't look after themselves. Now I'm proud to have her as the Liberal Party Candidate in this electorate because I know that she'll go out to the people of Indi and she'll say this is what the Government has done this is what I Sophie Panopoulos believe in, this is what I'll fight for when I get into Parliament as your representative.
Now give me that any day even if she gets a bit of flak for some of the views that we might hold, give me that any day to the wishy washy say nothing, sit on the fence Labor Party Opposition that we've got at the present time. I mean they've had five years to define themselves. I mean you've got to deliver after five years, I've delivered, you mightn't like it - some of it - you might say 'I wish he hadn't done that, I wish he'd done a bit more' but at least I've done something. At least I've stood up for the kind of Australia I believe in and I've argued my case. My political opponent has done absolutely nothing to define himself other than an opportunistic Opposition Leader who will criticise but never propose.
Whenever we make an announcement he's out there criticising. I mean interest rates went down the other day, they went down, every body welcomed that. It's worth $40 to $50 a month for the average home buyer in Australia, it's a great benefit to farmers and small business. But instead of Mr Beazley saying 'oh, I'm pleased for the home buyers and the farmers of Australia' he says 'oh it's gone down for the wrong reasons'. The reason he didn't like it is that the rest of the community liked it. And in the end the public gets sick of negativity, in the end people want to know what you believe in, what kind of Australia you are passionate about and what kind of changes you want to bring about.
Now that's what I communicated to the Australian people in March of 1996, that's what I've communicated over the last five years. Not everybody has agreed with it but that's a democracy and that's what I'm going to go on doing and as the months go by the Australian people are going to say 'Hey Mr Beazley, what do you stand for? What do you believe in? What do you offer? What are your policies?'. And he's had five years to do that and so far he's merely produced a blank sheet of paper. And I don't think that's good enough for an alternative Prime Minister.
Sophie, I'm delighted to have you as a candidate, I think you'll do a great job here in Indi, good luck to all of your supporters. I look forward on election night to an absolutely thumping result here in Indi for the Liberal Party.
Thank you.
[ends]