E&OE...
Well thank you very much Stewart, Bev McArthur, to the Leader of the Opposition Ted Baillieu, my fellow Australians. I'm a little disappointed the crowd here is not quite as big as it is Kardinia Park but I think that's very, very understandable and I have of course gone for the double of Manly and Geelong. Manly in the rugby league if you sort of remember that other code and Geelong of course in the AFL but it'll be a wonderful thing for the people of Geelong and I understand it will be the first time in what, 44 years which will be a wonderful thing for the people of this district and I think I could understand a lot of Victorians feeling that it's about time the flag came back to the state of Victoria. Today I just want to say a couple of things to you before throwing the meeting open to anybody who wants to ask me questions. I find these sorts of gatherings are most productive when people have an opportunity of questioning me and putting points of view, giving me any advice, friendly or otherwise they want to provide but I'd like first and foremost to ask you to endorse and support when the election comes around and it will be sometime between now and early December, when it comes around I'd like you to emphatically re-endorse and re-elect Stewart McArthur as your wonderful, energetic, hardworking member for Corangamite.
I was reading the Melbourne Age this morning, and I know some people recommend against that but I was reading the Melbourne Age this morning and I came across a remarkable story. It was a story about an interview conducted by the Melbourne Age with Mr Kim Beazley, the former leader of the opposition and now retiring from parliament and he was predicting that we were going to lose, I mean there's nothing surprising about that, you'd expect him to predict that, but buried in the article was this remarkable statement which sort of drove home to me one of the problems the Labor Party has with the major political debate at the present time and buried in this interview was a statement by Mr Beazley when he said the current climate in Australia is just like it was in 1996. He said the economy is terrific now and he said it was terrific in 1996 and I thought to myself, they just don't really get it. In 1996 the Australian unemployment rate was 8.5 per cent. The accumulated national debt was $96 billion. We were paying about $6 billion a year then to service that debt. We inherited an Australian economy which was weakened by the recession we had to have and we inherited a dispirited mood in the Australian community and you compare that with now and you find a vast difference. You find a nation that is confident, that is hopeful, that is sure of itself, that believes in itself and believes overwhelmingly that the nation is headed in the right direction and the decision that the Australian people will make at the coming election is of course a decision about the future. It is not a decision about the past. And I believe very strongly that this country's best years lie ahead of it. We may have done well over the last decade, we may think that our nation is strong and prosperous, but if we get a number of things right, there is no reason why we can't over the next ten years, have a nation that genuinely provides a full employment economy. And a full employment economy is an economy where every person who wants a job, can get a job.
That we can have a nation that provides an education system built on two principles, the principles of excellence and choice. Putting more resources into education is important, but making sure that the quality of the education provided by our schools and our universities is even more important. That we can have a health system that not only places an emphasis on caring for people who have ill health but places a greater emphasis on preventing the ill health in the first place. That we can have a defence system that provides appropriate protection for Australia and an appropriate capacity in conjunction with our allies to act in this country's interests in other parts of the world. And I am exceptionally proud of the fact that defence spending now in 2007, after allowing for inflation, is 47 per cent higher than what it was in 1996 and that we have the resources and the capacity to establish two additional battalions for the Australian Army. And that we can have an approach to the environment that balances the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to preserve our scarce water resources with the imperative to maintain the strength and the direction of our economic growth. We don't want an approach to environment that stunts our growth. We don't want an approach to growth that ignores the importance of caring for our environment.
Over the past couple of weeks there have been a number of announcements made that have greatly affected the Corangamite electorate, that have been of importance to the Corangamite electorate. There was the announcement made by the Treasurer last Friday of $14 million for the upgrade of Skill Stadium at Kardinia Park. And yesterday some $400,000 was announced towards after hours GP services at Lorne, Port Lonsdale and Winchelsea. And today, I am pleased to announce that some $240,000 will be made available for 8 Enviro Fund projects. And they include some $45,000 for the creation of wildlife corridors in the East Otways, $33,000 for the revegetation of Bells Beach Reserve and $14,000 for the protection of native vegetation at Lorne. Now you may well say, and quite properly,