E&OE...
Listen to this Speech (MP3 - 1.79Mb - 117secs)
Managing the economy well is not an end in itself. Strong economic growth is never a virtue in its own right.
All the reforms of the past decade; balancing the Budget, paying off Labor's $96 billion debt, generational tax reform, industrial relations and waterfront reform and so forth have only been justified because of the immense human dividend they have helped deliver.
The true value of getting the economy right is the human dividend it produces. The biggest dividend of all for people to come out of the past 10 years of careful economic management has been the huge fall in unemployment. It is now at a 32 year low.
The human value of having a job, the sense of self worth and esteem it brings is incalculable.
There is also a lasting human dividend to be found in the massive additional investment the Government has made in health and education over the past 10 years. Spending on Medicare, medical research and hospitals alone has risen 139 per cent on the levels of a decade ago.
Defence spending is almost 40 per cent higher in real terms than it was in 1996. Moreover, the heavy financial commitment now being made to deliver water security and tackle climate change issues would not have been possible without the skilful economic stewardship of recent times.
Economic management is sometimes debated in abstract, even academic terms. This should never happen. We should never believe that good economic management is an end in itself.
It is, in reality, a means to an end and that end is satisfying the human needs of the people of Australia.
[ends]
Listen to this Speech (MP3 - 1.79Mb - 117secs)