Subjects: volunteers; local communities; Bega cheese company; change in communities; Australian economy
E&OE................................
Thank you Gary, Russell, ladies and gentleman. This gathering here brings together, I've learnt as I've gone around and from what Gary has told me, just about every voluntary organisation that is, in so many areas like this around our country, the glue that keeps the local community together. And I would like to start my remarks in picking up Gary's reference to it being the International Year of the Volunteer. One of the remarkable things about Australia is that we have embraced and demonstrated the volunteer tradition far more, and far more effectively, than just about any other country in the world. At any given time we have double or triple the number of people involved in volunteer work than do other industrialised countries, other countries with which it is reasonable to make a comparison with Australia, and that says a lot. And it's always been a feature of our society and it's particularly been a feature of our society in non-metropolitan areas.
I spend a great deal of time, particularly when Parliament is not sitting, travelling outside of what I call the larger metropolitan concentrations of Sydney and Melbourne, and Canberra and Brisbane and so forth. And I've been to Gary's electorate on a number of occasions since he became the member in 1996, and those visits drive home to me just how important volunteers are, how important community spirit is. No matter which Government is in power and no matter what views people may hold about politics, the contribution being made by the local community is enormous. And I want to on behalf of the Government, on behalf of all our fellow Australians, express our appreciation of the untiring volunteer work that is done by so many magnificent organisations. Some of them are based on faith, some of them are based on a long tradition, such as the Country Women's Association, some of them are based on sport, some of them are based on concepts of service which originated in Australia, some imported into Australia from the United States and other countries. And you can find, and some of course, are based on common service in defence and sacrifice in defence of our country during war time. And there's a very long list, and when you add them all together you have a mighty army of volunteers and people all making a contribution.
And it's really only by organisations like that and the business community and the Government working together that we can solve a lot of our communities challenges. I often speak about the social coalition and it's a strong belief of mine that we shouldn't really waste any energy arguing about whether this or that should be done by the Government or the private sector or by volunteer organisations, rather we should recognise that in so many areas each has a role to play each has a responsibility and each has a contribution to make.
Another reason why I'm particularly pleased to be at the co-op is that Bega cheese is one of those great regional success stories. We read a lot of stories in the papers and we hear a lot of stories over the radio and see them on television of things going backwards and things closing down. And there are so many negative stories, and often there's an undue preoccupation with the negative to the detriment of the positive. And this company has demonstrated a capacity over the last 10 years to become a great export industry in cheese. It's gone against the trend, it's bucked the idea that there's no future for exports in many of these industries. And that is a good news story that's to be replicated all around Australia, and if you go to many regional centres of this country it's not all despair and things closing down, there are many good news stories of companies that are expanding and thriving. And there are changes that we all have to cope with, and I'm very conscious that people in regional and rural communities have had to cope with a great deal of change over the last few years.
Most change in our lives is unavoidable, some is avoidable, and some should be resisted because it's change for the worst. But I also know that change for the better can often only be better in the long term and in the process of getting to the longer term people go through a lot of difficulty and challenge and I want to say as the leader of a Government that has supported sensible change I'm very aware and I'm very conscious and I'm very understanding and very comprehending of the pressure that change can place on communities. And part of our job as a Government is to identify things that should be changed for the better, but to be sympathetic and understanding to communities as that change is undertaken. Because we are a society and a community before anything else, and preserving that sense of society and that sense of community is so very important to our identity. And that applies all over Australia, but it applies particularly in the smaller communities of Australia, such as here in Bega.
The other thing I wanted to say is that I'm delighted to stand along side Gary, who's represented your electorate in Federal Parliament since 1996. Eden-Monaro's got a bit of everything, it starts on the outskirts of Canberra, with Queanbeyan, and it comes down to the coast and it goes into some of the mountain areas, it's a very diverse electorate. And it contains a lot of different communities, and it's quite a task and he does it very well, he does it with an unerring commitment to achieving something for Eden-Monaro on every conceivable occasion. And the grant out of the rural adjustment program, that Russell referred to, which will be so very important, the $660,000 grant for the co-op, which will be so very important in facilitating and helping the adjustment process for the dairy industry in this district. And that is an example of what I spoke of a moment ago. Some change for the industry was really unavoidable and it's a question of how you manage that change, and if the Government can help to smooth the way and make it easier for people to adjust, then in the long run that change and that goal can be achieved, but in the process people are not unfairly treated, or unduly hurt. And that's our aim in quite a number of these areas where some kind of change is necessary.
I don't want to give a long speech about the Australian economy except to say that we have over the last few years as a nation grown very strongly. Not every part of the country has had an equal share of that prosperity, I understand that. And one of our aims is to try and even out the differences as far as we possibly can, recognising that you can never even them out completely. We are going to, as a world community, face a few more challenges over the next year, because there's some evidence of a slow down in the United States, and that has a ripple effect all around the country. But we've got a lot of things going for us, we've got a very low inflation rate, we've made a lot of big changes, and I think very beneficial changes, to our tax system. We have a very strong export performance at present, we're very competitive, as many primary producers would know, on world markets. And we've also seen a very strong growth in employment over all. And we want to hang onto these gains, and by running the economy carefully and sensibly, but by the same token being able to make provisions for very important nation building projects such as the investment we made, Backing Australia's Ability, in science and innovation only a few days ago. And the very important investment we made in the defence of the country at the end of last year. And also the investment we're committed to make in tackling the problem of salinity and water quality, which is so very important to this country.
So it's, as always, trying to find a balance. If you don't run a strong economy, if you don't manage the economy well, you can't really afford to do anything much in the long term because you're fighting rising debt levels and deficit budgets, and when you get into that situation everybody suffers. But you've got to have a point at which there's a dividend, there's a social bonus out of good economic management. And I see our capacity to do such things as invest in science, tackle salinity, to spend more money on defence, to spend $1.6 billion on roads over and above what we allocated in the last budget, I see that very much as the social bonus that has come out of the sensible economic management the Government's brought to Australia over the last few years.
But my friends, I'm frequently asked by people all over Australia, most particularly by the many hundreds of school children that I invite into my office when we have picture opportunities, as they call them, in the Prime Minister's courtyard, I'm frequently asked what's the best thing about your job. They also go on to ask me what some of the worst, bad things are about it too. But they say what is the best thing about your job, and I always say, because I believe it, that the best thing about being Prime Minister of Australia is the endless opportunities it offers you in meeting different groups of people in different parts of the country. And today is another illustration of the best part of the job, and that is the opportunity to meet the people who put so much into the Bega community, that hold it together, that through, in most cases, their volunteer efforts they make life happier and more bearable and more fulfilling for their fellow Australians, and it's part of the experience of the best part of the job of being Prime Minister of Australia that I come here today and have this opportunity of meeting you.
I want to pay tribute again to Gary for the tremendous hard work that he puts in on your behalf, and to you Russell thank you very much for your warm words of welcome. It's great to be amongst you again and I wish you all well and again I thank all of those who put something into this community for the way in which they are contributing to our wonderful country.
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