E&OE................................
Well thank you very much Ian. To Tony Muller, Mr Wen, ladies and gentlemen. First of all can I welcome those of you who don't work here to what those who work here and people like myself who represent this division in Federal Parliament, welcome to the high-tech capital of Australia. Because undoubtedly North Ryde has become increasingly well known, indeed almost famous for being a location of and the home to so many companies which are involved in high-tech businesses, not the least, telecommunications and communications generally.
I want to very warmly thank JDS Uniphase for the multi-million investment that it has made here. For the jobs that you have created. For the exports you have generated and for the lustre that your company has brought to the reputation of Australia as being a country of ideas, as having people who are able to participate at the leading edge of the communications revolution that is occurring around the world.
I understand that this operation alone accounts for about 10% of Australia's telecommunications' exports. This investment here and the R&D capacity has resulted in the generation of hundreds of jobs and as Mr Muller just pointed out as a result of the additional investment even more jobs are going to be created. What you are doing here is part and parcel of a great surge in the commitment of the Australian people and Australian companies, in partnership with companies from around the world in making sure that our country has a sizeable share of the communications revolution which is taking place.
Only two months ago I announced on behalf of the Government, a programme of expenditure of $3 billion under the title of Backing Australia's Ability which represented the biggest ever investment by a federal government in technology, innovation and scientific research. And the various measures that comprised this package will give further strength to the commitment we already have as a nation to the development of high-tech industries. The good news about the communications revolution is two-fold. It is of course bringing people and nations closer together and the closer together we are and the more readily we communicate with each other the less likely it is that we will have enduring conflict and enduring disputes.
The other piece of good news about the communications revolution of course is that it is generating jobs. And here is a wonderful example. Here as I look out at a sea of faces of young Australians, not all young but youngish. I can sort of say that. A sea of people who have hope and enthusiasm and ability and commitment at the leading edge of an industry that they know is part of the future. And what this industry will do for this country and indeed what this industry will do for the world over the next generation is quite unlimited. And one of the elements of our Backing Australia's Ability programme was to generate in Australia two centres of excellence that we believe would become world class. One of those was to be in biotechnology and the other was to be in information and communications' technology.
And we've identified those two areas because they are areas where Australians have always punched above their weight. They are areas where Australians have always performed beyond what you would expect a nation of 20 million people to be able to do.
Now I couldn't be more appreciative of the financial commitment and the sense of investment in the future that your company has demonstrated in the investment it has made here. This very successful fibre optics research and manufacturing facility originated as a spin-off company from Australian Photonics Co-operative Research Centre and that was a CRC, a co-operative research center, associated with the University of Sydney. And I'm pleased in that context to mention that in our Backing Australia's Ability programme announced in January, we intend to boost our investment as a government in CRC's by a further 80% over the next five years, involving an additional government outlay of $227 million. And this means that the total federal government investment in CRC's over the next five years will be $947 million. Those collaborative research centres create a synthesis between academia if I can call it that, the business community and entrepreneurs who are prepared to invest their dollars and take a reasoned risk on a proper return through the patient development, through research, of a new scientific frontier.
In his remarks, Mr Muller quite rightly acknowledged that the temporary challenges being faced by this industry worldwide were but a blip in the inevitable growth and expansion of communications around the world. I could almost take that as a metaphor for how I would describe one or two of the setbacks that the Australian economy has seen over the past few months. We did have a negative quarter in December, there is focus on the exchange rate of the Australian dollar against the United States dollar, but they do not distort or alter or in any way undermine the reality of the great economic strengths of Australia in the year 2001. They don't alter the fact that over the past nine years and particularly over the past five years. We've had very strong and continuous economic growth. That we have created about 800,000 new jobs in the last five years, many of them in your own industry. That we have historically low rates of interest, very welcome to small business and homebuyers, not I might acknowledge so welcome to people who live on their fixed interest investments, on their interest bearing deposits or investments. We have very low rates of inflation. We have seen major economic reforms implemented in this country. And just as you are in an industry that cannot stand still, I am in a job where in a policy sense I cannot stand still either. You don't have an option in today's modern world in government of doing nothing if you want to serve the longer term interests of your country. The responsibility you have is to try and mould and change and secure the future for the benefit of the people of the nation and that does involve taking decisions. And just as companies take difficult decisions to secure a longer term benefit, and those decisions may involve some short term adversity, so it is with a government, so it is with the government I lead. We've taken some decisions that will secure great advantages in the medium to longer term for this country, but in the short term may involve some transitional challenges and some difficulties. But all of our goals have been about securing the future of this country, just as all of the goals of this company have been about securing its future in a rapidly expanding, great global industry.
The last thing that I want to remark upon before I formally declare this facility open is to say how important the employees of this company are to its success. The strength of a company is the commitment and the skill and the ingenuity and the sense of partnership of the men and women who work for it. Good relations between a company and its employees is still the most important ingredient of success. If you have a happy, well remunerated, well motivated, totally dedicated workforce you can achieve anything. And it is evident from the expansion of this company, it is evident from its success that that is the philosophy its management has brought to this operation.
Again may I say thank you for investing in Australia. Thank you for investing here in the electorate of Bennelong, in North Ryde. I welcome it. Thank you for creating Australian jobs because yours is a great expanding industry, an industry very much of the future as well as of the present and I know an industry that's going to bring employment and hope and excitement to the people of Australia into the future. I declare this facility open and I send my good wishes to all who work here for great success and great job contentment. Thank you.
[Ends]