Mr President it's great to be back here in Adelaide again, Iain Evans, the leader of the state parliamentary party, Alexander Downer, the long-serving and outstanding Foreign Minister of Australia, my federal and state parliamentary colleagues and fellow Liberals. I want first of all to thank all of you for the great support that you have continued to give the federal Coalition over the last year. The support of the rank and file of the party is so fundamental to our success, but the other specifically important ingredient of our success, which is relevant to a South Australian audience, is the remarkable contribution that South Australian Members and Senators have made to the strength of my Government over the last 10 years. Without any fear of contradiction, South Australians have had a greater influence on my government than any government since Federation. And the contribution of Robert Hill, of Alexander Downer, of Amanda Vanstone, of Nick Minchin and all the other members of the ministry, outer and inner, and parliamentary Members and Senators generally, has been quite extraordinary. And it has been a golden period of South Australian influence and South Australian places around the table in Canberra, and I thank the party for sending such talented men and women to Canberra. I thank the Division for, in percentage terms, the best federal representation of any state in the Commonwealth, and I especially thank the Division for providing us with candidates who won highly marginal seats at the last federal election and I think particularly of Kym Richardson and David Fawcett, both of whom hold their seats by wafer thin majorities, but because of their energy and their talent, they will, I believe, hold those seats at the next election. But it's a great South Australian story, a great South Australian federal story, and one of which all of you should be immensely proud.
The most fundamental responsibility of any national government, when it comes to domestic policy is to provide Australian families with a sense of security, because the security of the family and the sense of wellbeing and security that middle-Australian families have is a measure of the success of national policy. And this morning, I want to talk briefly about two issues that go to the heart of family security. The first of those is the security of having a job, and as your President said, the unemployment level in Australia at the present time is at a 30 year low. We all know that political communication is very much about two things; it's about having the right policy and the right achievement to communicate, but also communicating it in a simple and direct manner, and there is no greater metaphor for the Government's economic success than the fact that our unemployment is at a 30 year low. We have over the last three months recorded a rise in the number of people in work in Australia of 159,000, that is the largest three monthly increase in the whole 10 years that the Government has been in office. And as I travel around Australia, the complaint I have, the talk I hear from business men and women, is not about the fact that they've got too many employees, and they want to let people go, their complaint is they don't have enough employees and they have great difficulty getting the right people to fill the jobs they have available.
Now I stress these things, because you will remember when we introduced our workplace relations changes, changes that are fundamental to securing the future prosperity of Australia, let me leave you in no doubt of the importance that I attach, and the Government attaches to these industrial relations changes. Today's prosperity is the product of yesterday's reforms, tomorrow's prosperity can only be there, if we continue the reform process today. And fundamental to that reform process, is the WorkChoices legislation. And we were told by Mr Beazley, we were told by Mr Shorten of the Australian Workers' Union that when we introduced WorkChoices it would be a charter for mass sackings. We were told that 11 million Australian employees were vulnerable. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Not only are they not vulnerable, because the real guarantee of job security is national economic prosperity, with159,000 more Australians have joined their ranks amongst the employed people of this country. And this is an employees market like never before in Australia's economic experience. And Australians have job security, the like of which they haven't had before because of the economic prosperity of this country. And the real measure of a workplace relations system is the contribution it makes to the enduring and future prosperity of the country.
In the early 1990's a million Australians were out of work, real wages were in free fall, yet we had the most highly regulated labour market imaginable. We had rules and restrictions and guarantees and protections and charters of worker's rights, they were of no avail because the economy was sick. And the point I simply make is that all the rules in the world will not protect a job if the economy is sick, and the ultimate measure of job security is the capacity of the economy to deliver jobs, and WorkChoices will deliver more jobs into the future. WorkChoices will provide more flexibility, WorkChoices will encourage the great export industries of Australia. Mr Beazley says that if he becomes Prime Minister he will get rid of Australian Workplace Agreements. By the time of the next election there could be close to one million Australians employed under Australian Workplace Agreements. Many of them in the resource sector which is the most profitable sector of the Australian economy at the present time. Mr Beazley says I will have some transitional arrangements, the trade union movement says no you won't. The head of the trade union movement in Western Australia, the most resource rich state in the country, has said very flatly that when Labor wins, he says, and this is the language he uses, we'll run a ruler over all of the AWA's and we will accept those we like, and we'll throw out those we don't like. Now let me sound a warning, if Mr Beazley becomes Prime Minister of this country, every Australian worker under an AWA will have far less job security and could well have his or her employment conditions torn up by a Beazley Labor Government.
So if you are looking at the most important, or one of the most important ingredients of family security in this country, and that is the opportunity and the right to have a job if you want one, this government has delivered in spades over the last decade, we have seen unemployment go from 8.5 per cent to 4.8 per cent. We have seen, as your President says, youth unemployment, dramatically reduce. We see a situation where the pressure is to find more people to fill the available job. We have turned the supply/demand equation of employment in this country on its head. There are now more jobs chasing fewer workers instead of the sense of despair that existed before, when it was the other way around.
The other matter that goes so very much to family security is having a home of your own. Home ownership is very much at the heart of the Australian identity and the Australian dream. I believe in an Australia where every family that wants to buy a home is able to do so, and like all of you, I am concerned about the increasing unaffordability of housing for first home-buyers. It's alright once you get on the bottom rung of the ladder, who does that remind you of? Dear me, I'd almost forgotten. But I will use the metaphor nonetheless, it's alright if you get on the bottom rung of the ladder, but increasingly that rung is a little higher, it's getting higher and higher every year and we've got to ask ourselves why is it so? And when you drill down, you find yes, the level of interest rates is important and if you are worried about home ownership, please please don't hand the economy back into the hands of those high interest rate specialists, the Australian Labor Party who gave us 17 per cent housing interest rates, and 21 per cent small business rates, and 23 per cent bill rates for farmers, please that's the first commandment, don't hand it back to the high interest rate specialists. But when you drill down a bit further you find some very interesting things, you find that over the last 20 years, according to a recent study released by the Treasurer, and the study was carried out by the IPA, the real cost of the housing and land package in this country has doubled, the real cost has doubled over the last 20 years. You find that although things like airfares, communication expenses, and many other things in real terms have declined over the last 20 years, the cost of buying a home has doubled. Now why is that so? It is overwhelmingly so because the cost of land has doubled over that period of time. The cost of building a house itself has not altered dramatically differently from the rate of inflation, but fundamentally the cost of land is the problem. And let me make it very clear, that until state governments around Australia, and they are all Labor, we know to our regret and pain and grief that they are all Labor, until state governments around Australia start releasing more land and stop using the development process as a method of raising revenue, we are going to continue to have a problem with the affordability of housing.
Now I don't suggest that interest rates are irrelevant, not for a moment, and we need to keep in office a government that has demonstrated a capacity to keep interest rates much lower than their opponent, and that's the Coalition. But if we are to have a proper debate about the cost of housing, state governments have got to face the need to release more land, and that applies to every single state government around this country. And they've also got to stop using the development process as a method of raising revenue. So my friends, let me return to what I said a moment ago, and that is that security for the family, and that sense of secure, predictable wellbeing which is so important to a stable and happy family life in this country, depends very heavily on those two things. It depends very heavily on job security and job opportunities, of rising real wages, of increasing employment opportunities, and it also depends very heavily on being able to afford to buy a home of your own. And having interest rates at a low level are important to that, but even more important is to make sure that the ordinary economics of supply and demand are in better balance than they are at the present time.
We need state governments that will have more realistic policies towards land release, we need state governments that will stop using the development process as a way of raising revenue, and until those things are properly addressed, we are going to continue to have this difficulty with the affordability of housing. And I do worry about that. I worry about the affordability of housing for young Australians. It's alright for those of riper years, but it's not good for younger people, and it's very important we give attention to this issue, and it's very important that we have an honest debate, and an honest discussion about the fundamental causes of the problem.
Let me finish with just one other remark, and that is that these issues of family security are very, very, much domestic issues, but let us not lose sight of the fact that national security is an even greater responsibility of government. And we have been reminded in the past two weeks with the events that occurred in London, we have been reminded of how difficult the struggle against terrorism is and will be, years into the future. There is no simple answer, there will be no quick end to the war against terrorism. Our opponents in the war against terrorism are not only fanatical, but they are also very tenacious, and as some disappear, or are annihilated or whatever the case may be, others come forward to take their place. And I know there will be people who will get a certain sense of fatigue about it, I turned on my television set this morning and I saw some executives of British airlines complaining about the restrictions at Heathrow Airport as if it was the fault of the British Government that those restrictions were brought in. Those restrictions were brought in to protect the travelling public. But it's an indication of how, long term, how challenging this struggle is going to be, but it is essential that we hold our nerve on these issues, it is essential that we recognise the long term nature of this and to recognise that we are dealing with an enemy like no enemy before. This is not a war that involves armies rolling across borders or declarations, or ultimata running out, this is a war where you are dealing with a sinister opponent, you are dealing with borders that are seamless, you are dealing with a guerrilla campaign of unprecedented menace, and of unprecedented threat. And we need the full armoury of strong domestic laws, we need strong alliances, we need a continuing military commitment in those parts of the world where striking at the heart of terrorism is so very important.
So finally my friends, I thank you again for your support, I wish under Iain's leadership, the state parliamentary party, the very best of good fortune. I look forward to hearing from the South Australian Premier as to what he intends to do about land releases, of what he intends to do about making a contribution towards solving this problem as I do look forward to hearing from all the other Labor premiers around Australia. And very, very finally in relation to state governments, I look forward to hearing from all of the state governments of Australia as to what they intend to do about returning the teaching of Australian history to the centre of our curriculum, because I think the time is long overdue when we need to have the teaching of the history of this country as a stand-alone subject in the curricula of all schools. We are proud of what this country has achieved, it has made mistakes, it has blemishes in its past, it's got things, but overwhelmingly the story of the Australian achievement is an impressive story and one of which all Australians should be proud, and why on earth we have stopped teaching our young about it, absolutely defies belief. Thank you.
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