E&OE...
Well thank you very, very much Mr Mayor. Paul and Margaret Neville, Lyn representing her hard working husband who is doing great things for Australia overseas, promoting our trade interests, members of the Hervey Bay Council, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for having me in your home, having me at this retirement village to share a few thoughts with you about our wonderful country, to say how wonderful it is that we are now experiencing some rain. I've got to say that the thing that impresses me unfailingly about Australians in all parts of our country is that they never lose their sense of humour.
You may remember a few months ago, about two months ago, when I announced that unless it rained there might be zero allocations for irrigators along the Murray-Darling Basin. And I said to the news conference that, without any hint of irony, we should all start praying for rain. And I meant it. Anyway, I visited the Hunter Region of New South Wales a couple of weeks ago in the wake of the enormous floods and I visited a little town called Morpeth. And Morpeth relies very heavily on a passing tourist trade. And I went into one shop and I said to the lady how are you and she said I'm fine, I haven't lost any stock. You know, the water didn't affect me, etcetera, etcetera, but, she said, I don't have any customers because it was Queen's Birthday weekend and I rely very heavily on the Queen's Birthday weekend and we've had all this rain and it scared all the customers away. And she looked straight at me, and she said: and who was that fool who asked that everybody pray for rain? And I thought well there you go, you can't win them all, but we parted in very, very good humour.
But one of the greatest things about the immense, unbelievable privilege of being Prime Minister of this country is that you get an opportunity to travel around, you get an opportunity to meet a lot of people. Not all of them like you, not all of them agree with you, but most of them are good humoured and you go away with an understanding of how they think and how they feel about particular issues.
We are, at the present time, if you look at the country as a whole, we are going through a very prosperous period of time. We've got fewer people out of work than at any time for the last 33 years. I now find whenever I talk to employers that they are complaining not about the fact that they have too many people on their payrolls, rather they are complaining about their inability to get suitable people to fill all of the positions they have on offer. And in many parts of Australia there is a huge shortage of workers.
I was at a function in Sydney last night and I was talking about this issue with a couple of people; one of them whom is that very talented lady Gail Kelly who runs the St George Bank, one of the most talented female business executives in Australia. And she was saying how hard it was to get enough good people and I said isn't it a terrific problem to be having to complain about our inability to get the right staff or enough staff whereas most of my political time we've been worried about finding enough jobs for the people who want them. So we would like to keep it that way. But it is important when we look at the strength of our economy, you look at the mining boom, we look at the low unemployment, we look at the stability with interest rates and all of those things; and the general optimism in the business community particularly the small business community, I think its very important to remember that amidst all of that there are still people in Australia who are missing out and who are doing it hard. And it's part of my job to make sure that the Government never forgets that, that there are people missing out.
And there is one particular group who are missing out very badly at the present time and has been very much in the news recently and that is that group of indigenous children in the Northern Territory and other parts of Australia who, on all of the available evidence, are undeniably suffering the most unacceptable levels of abuse and neglect. And I think we have a situation where we should all collectively feel a sense of shame and disgust that that is happening in our country. This has got nothing to do with the colour of anybody's skin. It's got to do with the most basic of all human emotions that we all share, whatever our views are on other things, and that is the greatest obligation we have in a civilised society is to protect vulnerable children. And that is far more important than any doctrine of how you treat the indigenous people or how the white and black in our community relate to each other.
And we have been driven to announce some unusual steps, and I don't make any apology for those unusual steps. They are a bit dramatic, they are interventionist, they will require, in effect, the Federal Government telling people for a period of time how things are going to be, not permanently, because unless we establish some conditions of basic law and order, unless we get basic policing facilities into these communities we have no hope of stopping the abuse. And if you can't have law and order, you can't hope to establish a situation where people are properly cared for with their health and properly required to go to school; and unless children go to school whether they're Aboriginal children or they're other children in the Australian community they don't have any hope of getting a job, they don't have any hope of being a part of the Australian community. And my view very strongly is, and always has been, that the best thing that we can do for the Aboriginal people of Australia is to give them a slice of the bounty and plenty of this country and to make them part of the mainstream of our society, by all means respecting their own particular traditions and their own culture and their own pride in their indigenous heritage, which we should respect and they have every right to preserve and cherish, but in the end the objective of all policies in this area has to be that everybody who is part of that community have an opportunity to share to the full the plenty and the bounty that this country has to offer.
Can I just say one other thing, and that is that I know that I am addressing a group of people who are in the, how shall one phrase it, in their advanced middle years. I think that's a good way of putting it. Their more mature middle years. And I want to say to all of you that the contribution that you have made and continue to make to the Australian community is immense. I have never believed in automatic retirement ages for anybody. I think people should decide how long they remain in a job or an occupation according to what their health is like, according to their own disposition. I think one of the great untapped resources of the Australian community over recent years has been people who in so many ways have put a lot into the community. And whilst they're not wanting to continue working flat out, full time all of their lives they still have an enormous amount to give back to the community and we are changing our attitudes on this very, very rapidly.
I have seen in the last 10 years indeed even in the last five years, I have seen a tremendous change in the attitude of companies and the attitudes of governments towards the employment of older people in our community. And it's a process that is gathering pace because people realise what an untapped resource in many parts of the community is represented by people in the older section of the population. And it's very important that we have policies that encourage people who want to remain in the workforce, the paid workforce for as long as they wish to do so. Those who don't; also respect that choice and as many of you will know one of the big changes that we have introduced in recent times comes into operation on the 1st of July and that is the new arrangements applying to the taxation of superannuation benefits where, in relation to people over the age of 60, if you've made a superannuation contribution to a taxed fund, any payment from that, be it a pension or a payout will after the 1st of July be free of taxation levels. And, of course, in September we're also making a number of other changes that are going to be of enormous benefit to self funded retirees. But I haven't come here to give a policy speech, I've come here to say hello to you. I've come here to say what a terrific local member you have in Warren Truss and what a fantastic replacement you will find in Paul Neville.
They've been colleagues and friends of mine for many years. They both identify with their local communities, they both work very hard, they both fight very hard for the interests of their local constituents and Paul mentioned my coming to Bundaberg a couple of years ago to announce some Government assistance for the sugar industry. At that particular time the sugar industry was on its knees and you all know how important the sugar industry is to many cities and towns in Queensland. And we decided to inject a lot of money into the sugar industry and, I mean, he must have a, you know, very, very twisted sense of humour Paul Neville because he said how desperately we needed all of this assistance and no sooner had I announced it than it rained and the sugar price went up. But I nonetheless say that we continue to honour the package and honour it in full because we know how hugely important the sugar industry is to many, many people in Queensland and how important psychologically the sugar industry is to people in Queensland. But my friends, thank you very much for allowing me to talk to you this morning. I hope to have the opportunity to meet as many of you as possible, I've already swapped a few yarns about the relative performance of the English and Australian cricket teams and, you know, there seemed to be one or two barrackers or former barrackers for England here. Well that's alright, we're very broad minded in this country and we make all allowances for that but as long as you barrack for the Wallabies against the Springboks and the New Zealanders you'll be alright; that is tremendously important.
So my friends, thank you for coming. My very good wishes to all of you and when, I'll make one, you know, dangerously political comment, when it really matters remember what a good bloke Paul Neville is. Thank you.
[ends]