It’s lovely to be here, I apologise to my friends here in the South Australian Liberal Party for stealing your previous State President to send him to London, but Downers have done good work in London over the years, and Alexander is doing excellent work in London right now.
It is terrific to be here. It’s great to see our Party here in such numbers and in such enthusiasm. It’s great to see so many lions of our Party who are rallying to our cause here today in Adelaide and can I just pay a particular tribute to Dr Jim Forbes, in the audience today. I can remember, at a low ebb in our Party’s life, back in 1994. The Federal Party wasn’t going very well – we were out of government in most states – and Jim Forbes made the immortal comment. He said, “There is nothing wrong with the Liberal Party that winning an election won’t fix”. What a wise thing to say, Jim, and what a true thing to say. It’s always true. There is never anything wrong with our Party that winning an election won’t fix, and thank God we won the Federal election. We should have won the state election, and our job is to remedy that wrong. Our job, ladies and gentlemen, is to remedy that wrong. That’s why I’m here, above all else, to help remedy that wrong.
I’ve got to say, I’ve really enjoyed my two days in South Australia. I’ve had a really good time. My time here in Adelaide started off with a trip to Adelaide University on Thursday night. There were 400 of my friends inside the lecture theatre, there were about 500 of my friends outside the lecture theatre, and thanks to the wonderful white horses of the South Australian police, none of my different groups of friends met on that particular night. But I’d finally drawn a bigger protest than Christopher Pyne!
Every time I come to the state of South Australia, I am impressed by its sheer achievements. This state has done some absolutely marvellous things. South Australia exports wine to France, it exports spaghetti to Italy and it exports R.M. Williams shoes to the wider world. It is a wonderful state. I drove past St Peter’s College on my way here. St Peter’s College has produced more Nobel Prize winners than any other school in the world bar none. So, every old person of St Peter’s College, I know you’re a Nobel Prize winner in the making. This is a great state – it’s a great state – a great state with great people which is being held back by a bad government.
This is a state Labor government, here in South Australia, that would rather pick a fight with the Federal Government than get on with the job of delivering good government to the people of South Australia. The state Labor government used to support upgrading the Darlington area of the North-South Road Corridor. That’s what they used to support. They used to say that it was the number one priority and being a sensible and constructive Federal Coalition – Federal Liberal Party – we said, about 18 months or so back, that we would commit, at the instigation of Andrew Southcott and others, we said we would commit a half a billion dollars in Commonwealth money to the Darlington project to upgrade the North-South Road. No sooner had we said that than the state Labor government said, “Not interested in that anymore – not interested in that anymore. No, no we want to do the Torrens to Torrens project”. It’s a state government that would rather pick a fight than get on with the job of good government. It’s a state government which has saddled this state with $14 billion in net debt. So what are they doing now? They’re spending a million dollars of your money to tell lies about the Federal Government.
Well, let me tell you the truth about what this Federal Government is doing. This Federal Government is increasing funding for schools and public hospitals right around Australia. Commonwealth funding for public hospitals goes up 9 per cent this year, 9 per cent next year, 9 per cent the year after that and 6 per cent in the final year. Commonwealth funding for school education goes up 8 per cent this year, 8 per cent next year, 8 per cent the year after that and 6 per cent in the final year. Total Commonwealth funding for public hospitals and schools here in South Australia is 30 per cent higher in four years’ time than it is now. That is the truth. That is the truth, and how dare this bad state government – this vindictive state government – waste a million dollars of your money telling lies? How dare they – how dare they?
Twelve months back, there was an impasse – a roads impasse here in South Australia. The new Commonwealth Government supported the Darlington upgrade, the state Labor government insisting, “No, Darlington shouldn’t happen, it should be Torrens versus Torrens”, and along comes Steven Marshall. Along comes Steven Marshall – someone who wants to get things done, someone who doesn’t believe in picking fights, someone who believes in rolling up his sleeves and getting on with the job. And Steven Marshall said, “There is a simple solution to this. Let’s do both”. So that is my plan. That is my ‘Marshall plan’ for South Australia. It’s to crack on with a half a billion dollars in Commonwealth funding for the Torrens to Torrens Road upgrade, and that’s 500 jobs. It’s to crack on with a half a billion dollars of Commonwealth funding for the Darlington upgrade; that’s 400 jobs.
My ‘Marshall plan’ for South Australia continues, with up to $1.2 billion in Commonwealth funding to upgrade the Edinburgh Air Base, to support our Poseidon and Triton surveillance aircraft. It continues with getting rid of the carbon tax, getting rid of the mining tax, ending the Green veto on development, ensuring the rule of law applies to major construction projects, establishing a one-stop shop for environmental approvals, because when all of that is done, we maximise the chance of the great Olympic Dam development going ahead, we maximise the chance of South Australia losing Tasmania’s unemployment rate and gaining Western Australia’s employment rate. That is the challenge.
Now, my friends, I want to stress that this is a Government which makes the right decisions for the right reasons. Defence acquisitions have to be made on the basis of defence logic; not industry policy, not regional policy, but on the basis of sound defence policy. I have to stress, we have not yet made a final decision on the design and build of the next generation of Australian submarines. But, there will be more of them. The bulk of the Australian work will be done here in Adelaide, and that means more jobs for South Australia. My friends, the best way to help South Australia, the best thing that we can do for South Australia, the best thing that any of us can do for any of the great states of this Commonwealth is to build a stronger economy.
The best way to build a stronger economy is to find ways to say yes to the creative people of our country, to find ways to say yes to the productive businesses of our country. That is exactly what this Commonwealth Government has been doing since September last year. Since September last year, the Commonwealth Government has said yes to new projects worth $800 billion. Greg Hunt has given environmental approvals to new projects worth $800 billion, and that is exactly what Steven Marshall and his team want to do if they get the chance to govern this great state of South Australia – to say yes to business, to stop burdening business with ever higher taxes and ever more regulation, to find reasons to say yes rather than yet more reasons to say no.
If we want a stronger economy we have to start off with a stronger budget. A stronger budget is the key to a stronger economy, because if the budget stays weak, that means higher taxes that comes out of your pockets, that means more borrowings, and that means higher interest rates, and again, that comes out of your pockets. So, a stronger budget is the key to a stronger economy and that’s exactly what this Government is delivering.
The Coalition knows how to deliver a stronger budget. Strong budgets are in our DNA. Some of you might remember the Howard government. Well the Howard government, of which I was a member, of which Christopher Pyne was a member, of which most of our senior ministers were members, the Howard government delivered a succession of the biggest surpluses in Australia’s history. And then of course, there was a change in Canberra. The Rudd/Gillard/Rudd government gave us the biggest deficits – the six biggest deficits – in Australian history. The Howard government turned a $10 billion budget black hole, back in 1996, into consistent surpluses of 1 per cent of GDP. The Howard government turned $96 billion of net Commonwealth debt into $50 billion in the bank.
Then of course, we had the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd government, which gave us $250 billion in actual deficits. They racked up $250 billion – a quarter trillion of dollars – in actual deficits, and they left us $123 billion in projected deficits. They left us – they left you, the people of Australia – with $667 billion in projected debt. That’s $25,000 for every Australian man, woman and child. They talk about fairness. What’s fair about saddling our children and our grandchildren with an intolerable burden on debt? What’s fair about this generation living beyond its means and burdening future generations with an intolerable burden of debt? Well that’s exactly what the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd government gave this country and that’s exactly what this Government was elected to fix.
We simply cannot go on borrowing $1 billion every single month just to pay the interest on Labor’s debt – we cannot go on. We have to live within our means and that is precisely what this Government is determined to do. Everyone in this room knows – you all know – that governments, like businesses, like families, have to live within their means. It’s not always easy to rein back your spending, but rein back your spending you must if you are consistently living beyond your means. That’s why we have taken tough decisions in the Budget. To have a modest co-payment for visits to the doctor, just like we’ve always had a modest co-payment for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme drugs. To index all social security benefits, not just some, to the Consumer Price Index. To say to young people, “You can’t leave school and go on the Dole. You have to learn or earn, because that’s the best way to get a start to your adult life”. To encourage higher participation by women and by older people, because that’s good for social engagement as well as being the way – as well as being the way – to increase our wealth. To free up our universities from the shackles of government, because surely, if there’s one institution in our society that doesn’t need government to hold its hands when it makes its day to day decisions, it’s those bastions of our best and brightest. I do want to say that one of the first people out of the blocks the day after the Budget to congratulate the Government on its higher education changes was the Vice-Chancellor of Adelaide University. So, well done, Christopher, on the work you’ve done there, and well done Adelaide University on its choice of Vice-Chancellor!
I want to tell you that not all of the news from the Federal Parliament is difficult and vexed. Yes, some of it is, but not all of it is. About 50 per cent of our Budget savings have already passed smoothly through the Parliament. The biggest savings of all – some $7 billion in savings from reducing the rate of growth in our foreign aid budget – has already gone through as part of the Appropriation Bills. Like other governments before us – the Fraser government in its last term, the Hawke and Keating governments throughout their term, the Howard government throughout its life but for its last term – like other government before us, we will carefully, courteously, patiently negotiate the rest of our Budget through the Parliament. I do say this: it does have to be done, and done it will be, because the failure to take tough decisions today just means that we will have to take even tougher decisions tomorrow.
Now, my friends, you’ve all been with me and my colleagues on quite a long journey, and last year, in the election campaign, you would remember that we made a clear compact with the Australian people. We told people what we were going to do: we’d stop the boats, we’d scrap the carbon tax, we’d build the roads of the 21st century and we’d get the Budget back under control. Now, almost 12 months into our term of Government, I can report to you that the boats are stopping, that the carbon tax is gone, that yesterday Jamie Briggs and Matt Williams and I had turned the first sod on the Torrens to Torrens Road project - so, we are cracking on, the bulldozers are at work - and the Budget is coming back under control.
Yes, my colleagues and I do gain some satisfaction from being able to stand up and say to the Australian people, “We are delivering on our promises”. But above all else, we get satisfaction from the honour and the privilege of leading this country, from the honour and the privilege of mixing with Australians from all backgrounds, from all walks of life and, indeed, of all political persuasions. As many of you would know, I’ve spent much of the last week talking to the leaders of the Muslim community here in Australia. They are decent people, they are proud of our country and like every one of their fellow Australians, they are appalled at the things now being done in different parts of the world in the name of religion. One of them said to me on Tuesday in Melbourne, in a booming voice, full of exuberance, he said, “You know, we are all part of Team Australia”, and he looked at me and he smiled, “And you are our captain”. I have never been more proud and I have never been more exhilarated than to hear that statement.
My friends, the essential task of government – economic security on the one hand, national security on the other hand – keeping our country strong and keeping our world safe. That is the mission of this Government: to keep our country strong, to do what we can to keep our world safe. I want to assure you all that this country is in good hands. I also want to thank you. We could do nothing in Government without the work that each one of you in this room does for us and with us in the wider Australian community. We are a great country, we are a great people, and yes, this is a great political party. Twice in the last year you have turned out in great numbers and with great enthusiasm to rally our country to our Party. In the Federal election, this division of our Party secured a two-party preferred vote of 52 per cent. Well done. In the state election, you did even better. You secured, for Steven Marshall and his team, 53 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. It is a travesty – an absolute travesty – that 53 per cent of the people of South Australia wanted a change of government but didn’t get it. But our job, my job, the job of all our Liberal parliamentarians, here in Adelaide and there in Canberra, is to work for change – it’s to work for change – because that is our fundamental mission as Liberals: to give this state, as well as this country, the good government that it deserves.
Thank you, my friends. I really appreciate the chance to be with you this morning.
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