PM Transcripts

The Prime Minister added some comments during his address to
the Tasmanian State Council at Ulverstone yesterday. They
come in the text as issued yesterday, at the end of the third
paragraph. " The recent proposals to spend $ 800 million are another example
of Labor's strange approach to public affairs. When they were
in Government they ended the RED Scheme because it was costing
up to $ 250 million for about 30,000 jobs. Two or three days
ago, they announced proposals which they said would provide
50,000 jobs for $ 800 million. Does anyone really believe that
that makes sense?
They say that they want interest rates to come down, yet they
propose to increase the deficit to $ 3 billion. They think
that spending more and more money alone can solve Australia's
problems. If the deficit were to increase in that way, there would be
no hope of getting interest rates down; there would be no hope
of providing a release of funds to small businesses through a
reduction in interest rates as soon as our economic circumstances
will allow. The help that would come to businesses
would be completely denied if the Labor prescription were put
into practice.
We know precisely what it would mean to increase the deficit and
to print more money. We know precisely what it means more
inflation, less productivity and reduced employment. It was
the most unrealistic thing I have seen out of the Labor Party
since they had their leadership elections.
Nothing has changed as far as the Labor Party is concerned.
They think that you can just go on spending dollars and that
in itself will solve Australia's economic problems."
DAVID BARNETT
14 August 1977