Thank you very much, Bruce, Kate, Greg Hunt, the Federal Member for Flinders, my state parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. It';s great to be back at this racecourse again to address the supporters of Bruce who';ve been as he rightly says his himself in his modest understated style a very, very effective articulate, noisy, persistent, hectoring, annoying, but ultimately successful Member for the seat of Dunkley.
You need people like that representing areas such as this because they get results and they do represent the concerns and the interests of their voters. This is the fourth day that I';ve spent in Victoria on this occasion and I';ve visited a large number of electorates and I';ve had a very consistent message which I want to briefly share with you today. I';ve had since becoming Prime Minister, I';ve had three broad goals for our country – you need broad goals in Government and if you don';t have them you end up having no coherence or no consistency in the decisions that you take. The goals I have are to give this country a sense of national security, to provide economic strength and to ensure that we maintain our social stability and our social cohesion as a country.
Yesterday, Peter Costello unveiled some very important changes to superannuation arrangements, while those changes were very much about the longer term. Some people rather unreasonably said today, well what about this or that that';s going to affect me tomorrow? Government';s have a responsibility (inaudible) to do with things that affect you tomorrow but they also have a responsibility to plan for years ahead and in the case of the policies unveiled yesterday to address the fact that like all Western countries we are an ageing population. We';re not ageing as fast as some societies. But our fertility rate is lower than it should be, much lower than it should be, but you know we';ve got to do something about that and our fertility rate is lower than it should be, but it';s not as bad for example at 1.74 as fertility rate in Italy which 1.23 or in Spain which is about the same. But it';s worse than what it is in the United States.
But the remedies that or the responses that we have for the challenge of an ageing population do not need to be as drastic and as radical here as they may be in other countries because we have sensibly managed our economy particularly over the last seven or right years and what was driven home to me this morning and I don';t how many of you heard Alan Greenspan being interviewed on AM and he made the rather remarkable statement during a testimony to a congressional committee, he made the rather remarkable statement that America';s ageing challenge was such that he thought the rate at which pensions would be indexed in the future in America would need to be reduced in order for the country to afford to pay pensions as the large cohorts of baby boomers retired from the workforce and became entitled. He went on to say that because we had a very large budget deficit, we';re going to have to take some of this drastic steps and I thought to myself, thank heavens Australia doesn';t have a large budget deficit. Thank heaven that our fiscal position is very strong and that when we talk about the future, we have a Treasurer, who because of his hard work over the last seven or eight years, is able to say to the more mature age people of the Australian community – we don';t have to cut your entitlements, in fact we are able to give you a different framework to encourage you to remain in the workforce longer. And I thought, having heard what Alan Greenspan had to say, that it was an arresting comparison.
I';m a great admirer of the United States on a lot of things, but I have to say I don';t admire the fact that they';ve gone into deficit. I think countries that go into deficit build up problems for future generations. And the great economic strength of this country, especially over the last eight years, has been that we have gone from deficits to surplus, we';ve repaid a large amount of our debt. Our debt to GDP ratio now is less than five per cent. The average of the industrialised world is 50 per cent. We have one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios of any country in the world, developed or undeveloped.
But we do have a very strong story to tell. I think in many ways that economic conditions in Australia now are the best they have been since World War II. You may think that is an exaggeration. (inaudible) quite strong in the 1960s, but in the 1960s we ran a more cloistered, pampered, mollycoddled economy. We had very high tariff levels, we had a fixed exchange rate, we didn';t live in a globalised environment, and we relied too heavily on one or two commodities so far as our exports were concerned. Now all of that has changed. For the first time since 1968, we have what I call the golden double. We have inflation below three per cent and we have unemployment below six per cent. You have to go back 35 years to find that. Our unemployment level now is the lowest it has been for 22 years.
I go around Australia, I';m beginning to find for the first time since I have been Prime Minister people complaining to me about labour shortages and not being able to get the staff that they need in particular areas. And that is an indication that we have got very close, not completely – you never accept that you have full employment because you always have an obligation to find a job for the people who are generally trying – but I will never declare therefore on those social grounds, that this country has full employment. But we are certainly in an era of much lower unemployment and a lower rate than most people would have believed possible.
Now all of this has not happened by accident and if I had one impassioned plea, especially to an audience such as this, never lose sight of the fact that this economic prosperity cannot be taken for granted. There is a growing tendency in the debate about Australia';s economy at the present time for people to assume that no matter what policies are applied, no matter who is running the show, the prosperity will just go on. I listened to my opposite number in the Labor Party at the National Press Club last week and his speech was littered with expressions such as, “in a country as wealthy as Australia”, “with the prosperity we have”. The assumption is while the economy';s okay they won';t do anything to muck it up and therefore (inaudible) find new ways of spending the proceeds of a strong economy.
Let me say to you my friends that the economy is where it is now not through good luck, it';s where it is now through hard work and sensible policy. And if we abandon those sensible policies we can very quickly go backwards. And there is no area that worries me more than the area of industrial relations. I suppose of all the policy issues I';ve been associated with in public life, I';ve probably fought harder for industrial relations reform than just about anything else. And one of the reasons why this country is doing so well, one of the reasons why I can boast as a Liberal Prime Minister that we';ve increased the wages of workers faster than they increased under Hawke and Keating is that through our industrial relation reforms, we';ve lifted the productivity of the Australian economy. And businessmen and women know that you can pay higher wages affordably if the productivity of your workforce goes up. What you can';t afford to do is pay higher wages if your productivity is not rising because that will only destroy your profits and lead to lower employment.
Now we understood that when we came to office and that';s why we drove hard to change the industrial relations system. And if we get a Labor Government, if we get a federal Labor Government on top of eight state and territory Labor governments, if we have nine Labor governments, if we have wall to wall Labor, you will have wall to wall, coast to coast union domination and that is what is happening. You see what is happening in Victoria. I go around Australia and talk to businessmen and women everywhere and there';s no doubt that there is a concern in this state about the extent of union domination of the state Labor government – there is no doubt about that. It is not just political rhetoric for me to make that claim and the same thing can be said of the relationship between the union movement and the State Government in Western Australia. And whilst I';m no fan of the New South Wales or Queensland Governments, I have to say that the level of union domination in those two states is not as great as it is in Victoria and Western Australia. And already the signs are developing that the economic performance of Victoria is falling a little behind the rest of the country. Well, as the Prime Minister of Australia, I don';t play favourites with any part of the country. As far as I';m concerned, as long as the investment is generated in Australia or comes to Australia I am happy. If I were Victorian, I';d be very angry that there are things happening in this state that are causing my state to fall behind the rest of the country.
So the moral of all of that, and there';s always a moral in what one says on these subjects, the moral of all of that is that we can';t take our prosperity for granted. We must guard against the developing view in the community that, well, this prosperity has happened by serendipity, that it';s just come along, it';s falling into our lap and no matter who you have in charge or what policy you apply it';s going to continue. Can I assure you my friends it won';t. It';s there by the hard work of the Australian workforce, the risk-taking of Australian businessmen and women and sensible national economic policies. And the only way that we can do that, the only way we can keep that is to preserve that winning and successful combination. Now we do that at a national level, we';ve also go to do it of course at a local level. And there are a number of local issues, and I must say that I was tremendously impressed with the programme for getting mature workers back in connection with the labour market that Bruce took me to this morning. It was an example of a programme that he essentially devised himself, he got the necessary support and the sense of purpose and the high morale and the optimism of those people, and I';ve met a lot of people in that situation over the years and the thing that came through to me was that they all had a sense of hope, they all had a great sense of optimism and they';re all the sort of people we desperately need in the workforce. We need more people in the workforce as the years go by not fewer because our population is ageing, we want people to work a bit longer and we want people to get reconnected with the workforce, we want to bring them back, we don';t want to leave them out and Bruce has done a lot of individual work in order to put that programme together.
Dunkley';s always been a tricky seat. I can remember coming here in 1987 when we didn';t win it. I can remember coming here in 1990 and 1993 when we didn';t win it. And finally in 1996 we won it. And Bruce increased his majority at the last election. It';s going to be a tough fight as you';re going for your fourth term it';s always hard. People start to think oh gee, you know, he might not be doing a bad job, but he';s been there a while and we';ll sort of have a look, you know, who else is on offer, sort of thing. Don';t, don';t. It';s very very very important that we all get behind Bruce. He is an incredibly energetic local member. He';s not only part of a successful government, but he';s also been an indefatigable worker before his local community. And this is a community like so many in outer metropolitan Australia. It';s got bits of great growth, it';s got areas where you have challenging social problems, you have areas of considerable affluence and it has areas which replicate what you might call middle suburban areas of our nation and you need somebody who';s sensitive to all of those different parts of the electorate.
So I really am delighted to have him as a colleague, as a friend, he';s a great representative. (inaudible) all of your help. We had a great struggle ahead of us, but it';s a great cause. This country is more respected, more highly regarded, is more influential than it';s been at any time in the last three or four decades. The rest of the world recognises that we';re strong, the rest of the world recognises that we are prepared to put ourselves on the line and support what we believe in and the rest of the world knows what a strong, (inaudible) we really are.
So, I think all of that adds up to a pretty good reason to re-elect the Government. Whenever the time may come along, but you do that here, you do that here in Dunkley and giving all of your support to Bruce. He deserves it, he';s a fantastic representative and I hope you re-elect him sometime towards the end of the year.
Thank you.
QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION
QUESTIONER:
(inaudible) Scoresby …
PRIME MINISTER:
Well our position is that we signed a piece of paper, John Anderson did on behalf of the Federal Government, called a Memorandum of Understanding, and we intend to keep our word in that document and we';re going to maintain that position in the hope that enough pressure will develop to force the Victorian Government to honour its part of that agreement. We can do a lot, but the public in the areas affected, particularly through exerting pressure on sitting State Labor Members, can do even more. I met representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and business groups in Bruce';s office this morning to talk about this issue, and I had explained to me in some detail the very considerable additional costs that would be incurred by a lot of people who really wouldn';t be able to afford it, if it went ahead as a tollway. And it was a very compelling case, and I said that we wouldn';t (inaudible) our position and we will from time to time continue to talk about it and think of different ways to highlight it, but in the end nothing persuades a government to changes its mind more than when its backbench comes along to it and says “you have a problem, you';d better do something about it”. And I think what has to be done is that the State Members in the areas concerned have to be told how, and they are I know being told how angry the community is. But the problem is the broken promise. There are tollways all around Australia and I can';t be set as an issue of principle that you never have tollways, but this is not a tollway – this is a freeway. And that was the deal. And John Anderson signed it on behalf of the Government on that basis, and we damn well intend to stick to our part of the deal and we want the Bracks Government to reciprocate.
QUESTIONER:
(inaudible) I';d like to congratulate the Prime Minister for the extraordinary leadership in view of September 11. Australia (inaudible) a more stronger international role of leadership is more visible around the world, and congratulations.
QUESTIONER:
Could the Prime Minister tell me by how many he will win the next election.
PRIME MINISTER:
Who me? Look, one will be enough, but it';s got to include him. No, look I don';t know. Can I seriously say it will be very hard. I think the next election is really going to be very tough and the most important message I have to Liberal Party supporters is not to take it in any way for granted. I think Victorians have experience of unexpected election outcomes. I have learnt from that. I mean I will be very, very attentive to people';s legitimate concerns. The first job I ever had was working for my father serving petrol in an inner Sydney garage, and the very first thing he told me – I served some petrol, I wandered in and said “Dad, that';s the one, that man was a bit sort of difficult to deal with”. And he said, “John”, he said, “no he wasn';t,” he said, “the customer is always right”. And he was dead right and that';s the view that I broadly take with the Australian public. I may disagree with them and I may do things that they may not like, and I have very strong reasons, but you never dismiss the views of the Australian public lightly. You always listen to what they have to say, and there is an enormous amount of commonsense collectively held by the Australian public, and one of the reasons why I spend a great deal of time travelling around this country and listening to people is that I want to understand what they';re saying. Now what they';re saying to us is – yes, we sense things aren';t too bad, but there are a few other things that we want attended to. And if we';re able to do so, we will – not all of them. But politics is a constant communication flow between the Government and the public, and I can certainly promise you I will be part of that flow as best I can. I hope we can be sufficiently persuasive to win, but I don';t want anybody to imagine it';s going to be easy.
[ends]