Thank you very much Michael, Chris Ellison, the Minister for Justice and Customs, Paul Omodei, the Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia, my many State and Federal Parliamentary colleagues, and particularly Sue Knowles, my former parliamentary colleague and the MC at today's gathering. It's true, this gathering seems to get bigger each year. And can I say one of the fundamental reasons for that is that you have an incredibly energetic, dynamic, new, young Federal Member in Michael. And the people of Stirling made a very good choice when they elected Michael to represent this very diverse and growing electorate in the national Parliament.
And as I look around the room I know that I am speaking not only with people who share with some passion Michael's political view of life, and mine, but I also know that I'm looking at people who as well are in different ways representatives of this community. And I do want to start my remarks by expressing my thanks and admiration to all of the people of this community who volunteer their time to make the lives of their fellow Australians a little happier and a little better.
Australia is a great nation of volunteers. It is true, as Michael said, that we live in very prosperous and fortunate times. I don't think Australia economically has been stronger than it is at the present time. But that should never blind us of the fact that there are still people, even in the best of times, who miss out through no fault of their own. And it should always be the part of a generous, benevolent community that those people be cared for.
And we can have legitimate debate about public policy, we can argue in our Parliament and between political parties as to what is the best way to help people, but nothing can replace the priceless commitment of volunteer organisations, wonderful group like the Salvation Army and the Society of St Vincent de Paul and all the other wonderful groups that work so very, very hard to make life a little easier for the less fortunate in the community.
And at a community gathering like this we should give thanks to the volunteer spirit of the Australian community and remember that it is very much part of the kind of society that we believe in, the kind of fair go society that's always been part of Australia, and the kind of society that I know all of us are very, very strongly committed to.
Coming to Western Australia, as I do frequently, reminds me again, and again, of the extraordinary energy and prosperity of this State. The resource industry is at the very forefront of Australia's economic growth and it will continue to be the case for many years into the future. The world needs Australia's resources. The world needs Australia's coal, it needs Australia's iron ore, it needs Australia's natural gas and in the fullness of time I believe it will need growing amounts of Australia's uranium. And it's important that we have a mature debate in this country about energy.
We, at the moment, are experiencing the patent consequences of high oil prices and they're feeding into the local price of petrol, not only here in Australia, but all around the world. We had a bad inflation figure yesterday, no point in mincing words about it, it was a bad figure because petrol prices are rising and the price of bananas went up by 250 per cent. It actually would be funny it weren't serious, I assure you. It's a reminder of the vagaries of economic statistics. The interesting thing about petrol and bananas is that their prices, both of them, have gone up through forces, and because of forces that no government can control.
I haven't met a political leader who can stop a cyclone. I can't and I don't think my opponent can either. And there's no political leader around the world who's been able to bring down the price of oil. And I'm afraid that the world community is going to be stuck with high oil prices and therefore high petrol prices for some time. And the events in the Middle East are making it even more unpredictable, and the forces of supply even more unstable. Now it's something I'm afraid, in all candour, that the world, including Australia, is going to have to live with for some time.
The problem with bananas and that associated price spike, that's going to pass through the system and whilst those things come along periodically, they're not things that remain. But the fact that you have those things, and they can cause what happened yesterday, is a reminder of how important the management of the economy over which the Australian Government can exercise control, is so very important: why it's important to have policies that encourage people to invest in resource industries, why you need a government to balance the Budget and pay off debt, why you need a government that keeps sensible control of spending so it's got room to provide taxation relief. Yesterday's figures remind us of the importance, more than ever, of strong and sensible economic management.
When I come to Western Australia I also understand the importance of making sure that our industry are as competitive as possible. We're having a debate at the present times about changes to industrial relations law. We've made those changes not to attack Australian workers, in fact we've better friend of Australian workers than anybody, their wages have gone up at a greater rate under us than under any former government. We've made those changes to make certain that in the future the prosperity we now have continues.
We are prosperous now because of reforms made on previous occasions. Today's prosperity is a product of yesterday's reforms. Tomorrow's prosperity will therefore be a product of today's reforms. And unless you keep that process going you're not going to maintain the prosperity and the good living standards we now enjoy. And as I go around I sometimes see people who talk about the right to work. The right to work is alive and well in Australia at the moment; in fact more people are exercising the right to work in Australia than ever before. We have the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years and we have fewer industrial disputes than we've ever had. In fact the number of people who want to work in Australia is at a record high and over the last few months, since our new laws came into operation, more than 100,000 people have been added to the workforce - doesn't seem to me that the new laws were a green light for mass sackings - as some of our opponents have suggested.
No nation can stand still, no nation can ever say 'well we've done enough, we don't have to make anymore difficult decisions and we can just assume that prosperity will continue [inaudible]. The world is never quite like that. And the reason that we are where we are now is because in earlier year's difficult decisions, progressive decisions were taken. And if we are to maintain our prosperity, if we are to lock in our prosperity, if we are to have the strength to deal with temporary setbacks, like yesterday's inflation number, we need to continue this process of economic change and economic performance.
And along the way we can also afford, in so many different ways, to look after the less fortunate in our community, and this Government has done that. And one of the things that I'm very proud of is that despite the fact that people constantly say, wrongly, that the rich have got richer and the poor have got poorer, the statistics suggest otherwise. It is true that the rich have got richer because that happens in any competitive capitalist society. But it's not true that that's happened at the expense of the poor. Indeed if you look at the figures you show that the 40 per cent of the Australian, I'm sorry, 60 per cent of Australia's population has had their living standards lifted through the taxes and the transfer payments of the top-earning 40 per cent. And if you look at every income group in Australia you can find evidence that their financial position has improved over the last 10 years. And I think it's important on occasions such as this that that be said because deep down it's very wrong and it's a misinterpretation of everything that's happened over the last few years to represent to the Australian community, the rich have got richer and at the expense of the poor getting poorer.
The last thing that I do want to say is to return to the contribution that Michael is making to the national Parliament. I think one of the greatest strengths of the Government is that we continue to elect people from a great variety of backgrounds. There's a dangerous tendency in politics now for more and more people coming in with a very narrow experience of life - and that's not a good thing. And one of the distinguishing features of the Coalition over the last few elections is that we've brought in a variety of people with different skills and different talents into the Parliament. Michael comes in with a background of having worked for politicians, but he also comes in with a background of having worked with his family property business, and with a very strong academic background and that represents an important contribution to the Parliament.
Stuart Henry who was elected in the nearby electorate of Hasluck, comes in with a very strong small business background and having lead an industry association in this State. And as we move around the rest of Australia at the last election, we brought in some doctors, we brought in some lawyers, we brought in a couple of policemen, we brought in a general director and so the list goes in. We brought in a social worker from the western suburbs of Sydney in Louise Markus who has worked at the coalface of helping the less fortunate in our community.
The point I make my friends is very obvious, that we need a parliament of all the talents. We need a government that represents a great cross-section of the Australian community. The Liberal Party is not some kind of exclusive club that chooses from a narrow gene pool, rather it inspires to get people from all around the community. And we have all the evidence of that and we have a growing diversity as far as the ethnic background of our Parliament is concerned. I think we now in the national Parliament, the Liberal Party has something in the order of six, seven or eight members of Italian heritage, including one of our new ministers.
Now I mention these things to make a point, and that is that the Liberal Party has never been owned by one section of the Australian community. The Liberal Party has a great empathy with business, I believe in business, I believe in companies making profits, providing they pay their taxes in full, to the last cent.
I also believe, I believe in competition, I believe that people ought to aspire to be better off as they go through life than they were when they started, that's a natural human emotion. But that doesn't mean to say that we're owned by anybody, we're beholden to anybody. We all know who owns our political opponents, but it cannot be said that anybody owns us. And I think that we choose people with the energy and enthusiasm of Michael to represent the people of Stirling is a good illustration of that.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, can I again say you made a wonderful choice in getting behind Michael, he's a great energetic member. To all of you who wonderfully represent the people and the community of this electorate, I say thank you and pay tribute to your efforts. And let's continue to give reality to our belief that this is the best country in the world in which to live and that means making it even more prosperous and even more respected around the world. It also means making sure those who, through no fault of their own, fall through the cracks get a helping hand and are made to feel part and parcel of the great Australian dream.
Thank you.
[ends]