Thank you very much Stewart, Bev McArthur, the Mayor, ladies and gentleman. I am delighted to be back in Stewart's electorate. I am starting this week of visiting various parts of Victoria and Western Australia, here in beautiful Corangamite. And I am doubly delighted to be supporting Stewart who's been a friend and a colleague of mine since he entered federal parliament way back in 1983. Stewart has achieved two things in my view in the time that he has been in parliament. He's been, as so many people are, a very effective local member. He's talked about the ring road funding which would never have been made available but for his persistent advocacy. He's talked about the funding that was provided for the purchase of that iconic painting, which is so important that it remain in the art gallery in Geelong. But as well as that, Stewart, over the 23 years he's been in parliament, has held consistently to a policy line which is designed to promote, in a consistent, coherent way, constant improvements in public policy.
It's not much good going into parliament, important though it is to represent an area effectively, to merely see your career as only advocating the interests of your constituents. That's your first responsibility, but the other responsibility you have is to try, through policy argument and advocacy over a period of time, bring about a change for the better in public policy. And Stewart is one of those people who has been consistent, he's not somebody who's gone from being an economic interventionist, to somebody who adopts a hands off, market-based approach to the running of the economy. Stewart has always believed in lower taxation, smaller government, the recognition of the reality that in the end, no government can intervene and divert the power and direction of a market. He's believed very strongly of course, all his political life, in the cause of lower tariffs. That's not a debate we have in Australia so much now, but it was a debate that raged a lot more in the 1980s and through the 1990s and Stewart was always on the side of the exporters, he was always on the side of the producers and he was a very passionate advocate of that cause. But he's also very importantly, for a debate that we are having at the present time, Stewart was a very strong advocate of having a freer labour market, he was a very strong advocate of industrial relations reform. He recognised in advance of many others in our party in the 1980s, how important it was to provide an industrial relations framework where individual employers and employees could as far as possible and subject to guaranteed minimum conditions, make agreements at the workplace level that suited their own personal interests.
He was a strong advocate of protecting our exporters against union thuggery, that's why he supported the secondary boycott provisions of the Trade Practices Act. He was a very strong advocate of taking centralised wage fixation out of Australia. And as a result he's been associated with me and my other colleagues both in Opposition before 96 and since we've been in government, in the cause of further industrial relations reform, and has therefore played, as a member of the parliamentary party, a major role in putting together a policy that will help entrench the prosperity that we now have. It is true that our economy is very strong, it's never been stronger. We have a 30-year low in unemployment, 4.9 percent. We have consistently strong budget surpluses. We've just brought down a Budget which significantly reduces taxation and provides, from the 1st July next year, for a major reform of our superannuation system. We are regarded around the world as a stellar performer when it comes to economic management.
But we must remember that the prosperity we now have today is a product of the reforms of yesterday. And if in 10 or 20 years time we are to be able as a community to boast a continuation of our economic strength, we must embrace more reforms because tomorrow's prosperity will not be the product of yesterday's reforms, they will be the product of today's reforms. And that's why we are pressing ahead with things like workplace relations reform, a reform that will get rid of that absurd provision we used to have in relation to unfair dismissals which made it so very difficult for many small businesses to take on more staff through fear that they would have to pay 'go away' money of $20,000 or $30,000 or $40,000 for somebody who was not making a contribution to the welfare of the firm or the other employees. And there would be many men and women in this audience that they or their families or their friends would have experienced that, and it was the bane of many small businesses, well that's gone now. And all of the prophesies that we've heard from the Labor Party and from many in the union movement about how the world was going to come to an end, the sky was going to fall in as a result of the introduction of these laws, they're going to be proved wrong.
But reform is never an easy thing to argue for, but can I say to you my friends that if we are in 10 years time, to still have the prosperity of today and even better, we must undertake further reforms. We can't rest on our laurels, we can't say we've done enough and give it up and say well look, you know, we've done terrifically, interest rates are low, inflation's low, the budget's strong, taxes are down, unemployment's down, profits are up, prosperity is here, it will go on forever, let's all take a holiday, let's all rest on our laurels and do nothing more. That, my friends, is a recipe for some people in 10 years time gathering in this hall and saying why on earth didn't McArthur and Howard keep up the campaign for further reform? Why did they get tired, why did they get lazy on the job? Well I want to tell you the Government has no intention of getting lazy or tired on the job when it comes to economic reform.
My responsibility as Prime Minister, the responsibility of all the Ministers, the responsibility of the entire parliamentary team is to make sure that everything that we have achieved economically is not only maintained but it is added to as the years go by, and we can only do that, we can only entrench and strengthen the economy further if we're willing to undertake further reforms such as industrial relations reform. And it think it is very important that we see these changes in the context of providing a stronger, better, more competitive future.
Could I just say one other thing, because I do want the opportunity of meeting all of you and I don't really want to give you a long speech, but can I say that we are living in a very unhappy world at the present time. It's impossible for us to be other than distressed at what is happening in the Middle East. The loss of life, not only the loss of civilian life, but also the loss of military life in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is, I know, distressing to people all around the world.
But we do, as a community have an obligation to try and understand the root causes of this conflict. And I am quite unapologetic in saying that the root cause lies with the unwillingness of many countries and organisations in the Middle East to accept the legitimate right of Israel to go on existing in a peaceful fashion. Every country in the world has a right to exist in peace, it has a right to independence free of constant bombardment and harassment and terrorist attacks. And this latest conflict is a direct result of a Hezbollah incursion into Israel, it is a direct result of the unwillingness of Syria, of Iran, of Hezbollah, and also of the Hamas organisation in the Palestinian territories to accept the right of Israel to exist.
And also, can I say to you that we will never have lasting settlement in that part of the world until there's an unconditional acceptance of Israel's right to exist, and there's also an unconditional acceptance of the need for an independent Palestinian state. Palestinians are entitled to have their homeland, and it's been the policy of the Australian Government for many years, not only of course to continue to support unconditionally Israel's right to exist, but also the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians for a homeland of their own.
It's very, very easy when a conflict like this starts, for people understandably to say whatever the rights and wrongs are, the conflict must cease. I would like it to cease immediately, but there will be no lasting peace while there is an unwillingness on the part of organisations like Hezbollah to accept Israel's right to exist. Israel doesn't want more territory, Israel wants the right to live in peace in their own territory. And what Israel has done on this occasion is, in my judgement, an act of self defence.
Can I finally say that I am very pleased that as people have come back from the Middle East there have been expressions of gratitude for what the Australian Government has done to get them out. I think some of the comments made last week by certain community leaders were totally unfair and totally unjustified and completely over the top in their criticism of what the Australian Government was doing. It's a war zone. And when you're living in a war zone, when you're trying to extract people from a war zone it's very dangerous. To my knowledge there's been no loss of life or serious injury directly attributable to any alleged slowness on the part of Australian Government officials to get people out.
And I want to pay tribute to the wonderful job that the Australian Ambassador in Beirut, Mrs Sachs, has done in an incredibly difficult situation. The people that they helped are now back in Australia. We have got to remember that our consular people are still there, risking their lives in the interests of looking after people who are in another country.
But ladies and gentlemen, it's great to be back in Corangamite. I've spoken about one or two fairly sober subjects this morning. The Government is often a very sober thing, but it's also a very happy thing as well. And it is a source of enormous pleasure and pride I know to Stewart and to me and to all of our colleagues that over the last 10 years we have done some very good things for the Australian people. We have lifted the spirits of the Australian people. We are a more confident, outward looking, prosperous country. We are regarded around the world as a successful example of how a modern, tolerant society can build.
And contrary to what the critics say the rich have not got richer at the expense of the poor getting poorer. And if you look at all of the analysis, I read some absurd stuff in the Melbourne Age the other day suggesting that the gap was growing. If you look at the figures it's not. The reality is that the lower income cohorts have also enjoyed very significant increases in their standard of living.
Now of course in a competitive, capitalist society, rich people do get richer and there's nothing wrong with that providing it's not at the expense of the poor getting poorer. And if you look at the studies, you look at the analysis, you look at the statistics, that has not happened in this country. And what we have been able to do with our tax and welfare policies is to provide a fairer go for some of the lower income groups in the Australian community.
And the greatest thing you can do to lift people out of poverty is to give them a job. It's the greatest poverty buster known to man giving somebody a job and we have seen such a significant reduction in unemployment. We've seen it go down to this figure of 4.9 percent. Now it might bounce around a little bit, but it's an extraordinarily low figure. And the participation rate, that's the percentage of the workforce trying to get a job, is at a record high. And that shows people are confident, they're trying to get work, and it shows that our policies that provide people with an incentive to look for work rather than to remain on the dole, are working.
So there's a lot to be pleased about, there's a lot to be positive about. The most positive thing of all, of course, is to be an Australian and to have the people of Corangamite represented by the magnificent Stewart McArthur. Thank you very much.
[ends]