Well thank you very much Nick, Simon Birmingham, ladies and gentlemen. It's great to be back in Adelaide. I've just come from Sydney where I was overnight, and I'm looking forward to spending a few days here in Adelaide and I am particularly pleased to be here in the electorate of Hindmarsh, which has been so wonderfully represented in the national parliament over these past years by Christine Gallus, who I think has done an absolutely outstanding job.
Just as in the Olympic Games you have events that have baton changes, so it is in politics you have events that involve a baton change. And Christine is handing the baton, certainly the Liberal baton and I hope after the next election - whenever it may be held, so let's get that out of the way at the beginning, I haven't come here to announce that - I hope the baton in Hindmarsh will pass to the very young and enthusiastic and capable hands of Simon Birmingham, and I am delighted to be here to meet many of the people of the Hindmarsh community. A lot of you I know well already because, as you know, this is certainly not the first time that I've come to this electorate. And Nick is right. I think the Adelaide Oval is the most beautiful cricket field in Australia, and indeed some people tell me Football Park just over there is not too bad either. But the Adelaide Oval and the city of Adelaide is a wonderful part of Australia.
But I'm also here to say a couple of things about issues that are important to the future of our country. As I look around this room, I see represented all of those great organisations that make this country strong and fair, those great community organisations - the RSL, the Lions Clubs, the local church organisations, the welfare organisations that know more about what it is to be a battler in this country than any other section of the Australian community. I see the sporting clubs represented. Sport is the great national cement in this country. It binds us all together whatever our sporting passions may be, and I have a number and so do you. They bring us together in a wonderful way.
Australia at the present time is enjoying an extraordinary period of economic growth and strength. There is no doubt about that. Our economy at the present time is the strongest it's been, certainly in my lifetime. We are enjoying for the first time since 1968 unemployment which is below six per cent and inflation that is below three per cent. We've seen wages grow sustainably over the last eight and a half years. We have interest rates at their lowest levels for a generation. We have strong business prospects. But importantly, and because we have repaid a lot of debt, we are able to afford to invest even more resources in things that are important to all local communities - in schools, in medical care, in roads and in other infrastructure. I don't want to bore you with a lot of figures, but can I just leave you with one, and that is that as a result... yes, and we have a baby bonus as well. And you know, there's plenty more too.
But ladies and gentlemen, I give you one figure just to take away from this gathering. You hear us talking a lot about debt, and we did have a big debt eight and a half years ago. Our nation had a debt, the Commonwealth Government had a debt of about $96 billion, and that's now been reduced by about 70 of that 96, and as a result of reducing that debt - surprise, surprise - we have on average another $5.5 billion a year over. And because we don't have a big debt, we can actually use that $5.5 billion. We don't have to put it in the bank. We can actually invest it for the benefit of the Australian people. And every year that extra $5.5 billion could be spent on strengthening Medicare and providing a safety net, providing more money to state and to independent and Catholic schools to strengthen our education system, spend more on roads, spend more on defence, and very importantly for the people of South Australia, invest it in cleaning up the River Murray. So don't let anybody ever convince you that paying off debt is a dry, arid, pointless exercise. Just as you pay off the mortgage on your house, you've got the interest payments that you would otherwise have to meet, to spend on something else. So it is that a nation that pays off its debt has got the money it otherwise would spend on interest, to invest in lower taxes, in spending on education, in spending on other things.
Now I know as Prime Minister that there is no issue long-term that is more important to many people in South Australia than to get the River Murray flowing again, not only for the crucial importance it has for the water supply of this city, the quality of your drinking water, but also the tremendous importance it has from an environmental point of view. And before the meeting in Canberra a couple of weeks ago, I made it very clear to all of the State Premiers and to indeed the whole nation that that meeting was a crucial test of whether cooperative federalism within our nation could work. And it wasn't going to be an old style Premiers' conference where Premiers came long and said we'll sign on the dotted line if you give us another few hundred million. We've already given the states another $9 billion over the next five years courtesy of the growth in revenues from the GST. And what I asked the State Premiers and Chief Ministers to do at that meeting was to rise above any parochialism and to recognise we wanted an outcome that was for Australia - not an outcome for Queensland or for New South Wales or for Victoria or for South Australia, but an outcome for Australia. And we did get a good outcome for Australia. And that good outcome for Australia was also particularly good for South Australia because there's $500 million now which can be spent on cleaning up the River Murray and there are seven or eight icon projects that have been identified.
And now that we've got agreement on the national water initiative, we are able to go ahead and have that money spent, and I think it's a great outcome and for the first time in a generation as a result of a national agreement, we are able to see the way ahead so far as the River Murray is concerned and to see the day when the water will flow more freely again, we'll see the day when supply and security is given to the people of Adelaide and to the people of South Australia. It's nothing more than you deserve. You deserve it and you've been delivered it, and I'm very proud that I had the privilege of being Prime Minister at the meeting that has delivered security for the water supply into the future for the people of South Australia and particularly for the people of Adelaide.
Quite rightly, political leaders are required to talk about their future - the future of their country and the future goals that they have in mind for the people they seek to lead. And I'm going to take the opportunity here in Adelaide tomorrow to say something about the goals and responsibilities that I see if the people of Australia are good enough to give the government I'm proud to lead a fourth term. But you can have all the goals in the world, but unless you fulfil your responsibilities in two very important areas, you can't deliver those goals. And those two important areas are the economic strength and growth of which I spoke earlier, and the other great goal is of course you must secure and defend the nation. Economic strength, national security - they are the two underpinnings, they are the twin pillars on which any goals and hopes and aspirations for the future of this country may be based.
We've come a long way in the last eight and a half years. Australia is a proud and respected country. It's always been a proud and respected country, and that comes from the character and the nature and the decency of the Australian people. But over the last eight and a half years, people have seen the economic success, they've seen the capacity of this country to welcome visitors, to run great sporting events, to do them well with style and friendliness and efficiency. They've seen our willingness to stand up and play our part in the world. They've seen the way in which we led the liberation of the people of East Timor. They've seen our willingness to participate in other international operations, even in the face of divided opinion and controversy within our own country. One of the things I've learnt in the last eight and a half years is that in the end it's the strength and determination of the position you take, rather than the instantaneous popularity of it, that matters most.
So underpinning everything is economic strength and national security and defence, and it remains the two major responsibilities that this Government has, because without them nothing else is possible. And without having had them over the last eight and a half years, the low unemployment, the low inflation, the extra investment in Medicare, the extra investment in education, the extra investment in the environment, the extra investment in roads and other infrastructure, none of that would have been possible.
We will be at some time asking the Australian people and the people of Hindmarsh, the people of South Australia, to make a judgement, and all elections involve judgements, they involve choices, they involve decisions about who has got the experience and who has been road tested and who has got the capacity to make difficult decisions in difficult circumstances. They involve judgements about future goals and hopes and leadership. They also involve judgements at a local level about whether you have candidates of application and of energy, and Simon I know is new to a lot of you, but I have heard a great deal about him and what I've heard about him is very good. I've heard that he's made a great contribution to his community already, that he's had a number of positions of great responsibility and advocacy, and the very important quality that he does bring is a quality of energy and commitment.
And I think parliament should be a mixture of all of the talents. We have people of different backgrounds, of different ages. We don't want everybody around the same age, coming from the same position. We don't want a parliament full of people whose only life experience has been working in a trade union office or working in a very narrow political environment. We want people who have had a variety of life's experiences. Now I think Simon, at a relatively youthful age, fits that bill and I'm very proud to have him as my standard bearer, as the Liberal Party candidate here in Hindmarsh. I think he will take the baton from Chris Gallus and get to the finish line, but it will be a tough race and I hope a lot of people here will give him as much support as you can. But whatever your political judgements are, and in the end we're a great democracy and people will make their assessments and make their judgements, just remember that as part of a great local community, it is you more than anybody else that provides the national cement for our country. I addressed a small business gathering last night in Sydney and unveiled a few policies for small business, and I made the comment that much and all as I was proud of what the Government had done for small business over the last eight and a half years, nobody had done more for small business during that time than the men and women in small business itself - the adaptability, the energy, the enthusiasm and the commitment of the men and women in the small business community. And so it is with your community.
Thank you very much for coming. Thank you very much for listening. Give this bloke a good hearing. I think he's got the goods and I think he'll make a first class Member for the electorate of Hindmarsh.
Thank you.
[ends]