E&OE...........
[tape begins] This I think is the second or third, I think the third of these gatherings that I';ve attended and it really does drive home something that';s very obvious to me, six years in as Prime Minister of Australia, and somebody who';s had his share of set tos on occasions with received opinion from the Australian Capital territory, the changes that have occurred in the public/private mix of the Canberra and regional economy. It is an economy transformed over the last five or six years. There';s not the slightest doubt that the private sector now bulks far larger in the life and the economy of the ACT than it did only five or six years ago. And certainly far more than it did 15 or 20 years ago. That is not to in any way denigrate or downplay the public sector importance and the special role of Government in the economy of the ACT and the special place of the public service in the life and the aspirations of the Australian Capital Territory. I think the ACT has adjusted extraordinarily well to many of the changes that my government was responsible for, many of them in the face of ferocious criticism and opposition at the time. But in the process I think we have together brought about a transformed economy in our national capital and the surrounding region and tonight';s gathering is a good illustration of what';s been achieved and I want to join others in thanking Ericsson for the tremendous support and the patronage that it';s bought to tonight';s function and to honour its contribution to the Australian economy, particularly to the communications industry.
It is true as the Chief Minister said that the unemployment rate in the ACT is lower than any other jurisdiction in Australia. The participation rate of the labour force by dint of the special economic and social structure of Canberra is higher than in any other part of Australia. And an enormous amount has been achieved by the ACT';s economy, largely by the people in this room, the entrepreneurs, the investors, the business men and women who';ve played such a significant role in the restructuring and the revitalisation and the regeneration of the ACT';s economy over the last few years.
This dinner inevitably takes place in the wake of some extraordinarily good economic news that was released last week and something has been said about comparisons between the Australian economy and the economies of other parts of the world. And I agreed with Professor Smith that Australia should never try and imitate anybody, Australia should always be herself because being herself is a pretty good thing to be. In fact there';s none better. But we can learn from other people and other people can learn from us. And we can also learn not to be frightened of our success. We should learn not to be too surprised when we keep hearing and having it confirmed that we are performing economically better than most other countries. Now that';s not a cause of any kind of triumphalism, it oughtn';t to be a cause for us abandoning the tools of economic reform or the zest for it. But it should certainly be an encouragement for us to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that are presented to Australia at the present time. If you look at the figures that were released last week, by far the most encouraging part to me of those figures is not the headline 4.1 per cent of growth, although that';s very reassuring and very valuable as a confidence booster for the entire community, but to me the most exciting thing about those figures is that they demonstrate the extraordinary productivity improvement that has occurred in this country over the last decade. And if I were asked to single out one particular descriptor of the Australian economy that I thought was more important than anything else I would single out the improvement that has occurred in our productivity which has really been quite remarkable. And that of course has been fuelled by a lot of things, it';s been fuelled by labour market reform, it';s been fuelled by other reforms, it';s also been massively contributed to by the way in which this country has embraced information technology.
I keep learning and understanding more things about the character of the Australian economy and the character of the Australian people every day that I';m in my current position. And one of the things that we should never underestimate is the historic capacity of the Australian community to innovate and to indulge itself in and devour new technology. We are some of the most rapid embracers if I can put it, the most enthusiastic embracers of new technology that mankind has ever seen. And it only seems a short while ago that we were having rather sterile arguments about whether in order to be a high-tech country you had to actually manufacture IT or whether the measure of it was in fact the extent to which you utilised and applied it to the purposes of your business. And I think we';ve demonstrated pretty convincingly with our productivity performance that that';s a pretty sterile and irrelevant argument. The other sterile, irrelevant argument that';s now fallen by the wayside, it was in vogue only a couple of years ago, is this idea that there is such a thing as a new economy and an old economy. The reality is that there are not new businesses and old businesses there are only efficient businesses and inefficient businesses. And the efficient businesses are those that apply information technology to their advantage and convert it to the productivity improvement of their activities. And Australian businesses have been extremely adept at doing that over the last few years. And that';s one of the reasons why productivity has boomed so much and one of the reasons why that';s underpinned the economic performance of Australia.
There are other reasons. Our changed labour market approach - there';s no doubt in my mind that if this country wants to hit a brick wall in further economic development and further economic growth it only has to turn its back on deregulation of the labour market and it will go a long way to achieving that outcome because the change that has come across the Australian economy as a result of the fact that we have freed our labour markets has been enormous. And I hope that it will be possible during this term of the Government that we can make some further progress on that front and it is devoutly to be hoped that at a state level there is not a turning back of the clock in that area. It would be tragic and inimical to the long term interests of employment growth in this country if we were to turn our backs on the enormous gains in productivity that has accrued from the freeing of labour markets of the last few years at both a national and at a state level. And it would be a particularly grievous blow to our small and medium sized businesses which are so much part of the Canberra economy if that were to occur.
So we do have an opportunity, atypically of many industrialised economies at the present time, to take advantage of very strong economic conditions. But we';ll only be able to do that if we continue with the process of reform and change. In a globalised economy we can';t afford to be static, we have to continue reform, we have to continue to innovate not only in our businesses but also in our economic management. And we have to continue a practical partnership between business and government. I spoke a few moments ago of some of the features and characteristics of Australia and Australians. One of the things that I believe that this country has done better over the last 100 years than many other societies is that we have got the public/private sector mix and balance a little better than most. We seem to spend a little less time in Australia arguing as to the level of involvement of the government or the level of involvement of the private sector in many of our key social areas. And when I as Prime Minister of Australia look on the one hand perhaps at the United States and I look on the other hand at Europe I think one of the things that we have done rather cleverly in this country in areas like health and education, for all the improvements that are still needed in both of those areas at a federal and state level, is that we';ve managed to get the public/private sector mix rather better and more in balance than many other societies. We';ve avoided some of the harshness of an approach that does sometimes allow people to fall through the safety net and on the other hand we have avoided the stultifying impact of too great a level of state intervention. And in areas like education and health in particular I think we have achieved a rather happier balance that has been the case in so many other societies.
I';m very proud of the fact, if I can say directly to our hosts and to our visitors, of the Government';s own performance. We now have a Federal Government that is completely online. There are 1,665 different agencies of the Federal Government which are now completely accessible on line so far as their services are concerned. And a project and a goal that we set ourselves only a few years ago and I think it was back in 1997 seemed to be unachievable, has in fact been achieved. And I was very proud at the conference, the information communications conference that I attended in Adelaide only a couple of weeks ago, was able to tell our six or 800 visitors from overseas that that was one of the achievements that Australia, in the Government sector, has been able to chalk up.
So ladies and gentlemen I';m delighted at the progress that the Canberra, the ACT and regional economies have made over the last few years. There is a sense of optimism and hope and prosperity in the ACT region. It';s due overwhelmingly I believe to the efforts of the business men and women in this room. What you have done is participate in a transformation of the economy of the national capital and the surrounding region. It';s a transformation that has preserved the best of the traditions of the old Canberra but transplanted it into an atmosphere of modernity, of a greater involvement of the private sector and a recognition that the Government and the private sector must work together.
I';m very thankful for the contribution that my own senior colleagues, many of whom are here tonight and particularly I want to acknowledge the presence of Richard Alston who';s been responsible for the communications and information technology area in the Government for the past six years. And the contribution that so many of my own ministers have made to that transformation should not be underestimated.
Again to Ericsson thank you very much. I compliment all of the business men and women here tonight for the role that they have played and take heart that you belong to a country whose economy is outperforming most and whose economic conditions and prospects of further growth and prosperity have rarely been brighter.
Thank you.
[ends]