Embargoed until 8.00 p. m. . jANSRLA
PRIME MINISTER
ruzI DEtCEMIBER 1977
ESSENDON RALLY
in just three days, the men and women of. Australia will make a
decision about our great country's destiny. The alternatives are
clear. Will you reject Labor's policies of futility and fear.
Will you choose our policies of growth and confidence our policies
of success. Our country is poised to move into the 80s and beyond
with new hope, new spirit and a new sense of security. We are now
a nation of many cultures, many rich traditions a nation to which
people from all over the world have contributed. We face the
future with a new sense of purpose, of rekindled pride.
The first stage of the job this Government was elected to do
is complete. We are now ready to move into a new era of
prosperity and development. Our achievements have matched
our prqmises. We promised to reduce Labor's inflation.
Inflation is down to and it is falling.
We promised to control Government spending. We have already
halved. Labor's $ 4,500 million deficit. We promised to revive
incentive, restore fair reward for achievement. We have
-substantially cut every Australian's taxes. It is now
worth working overtime again.
We promised to get Australia moving again. Industry is investing
again. our natural resources are being developed again, and
there is new confidence in our manufacturing industry.
$ 6,000 million worth of firmly committed projects are under
way or ready to go. Many billions of dollars more are in the.
pipeline. Udra Liberal Government Australia's vast-potential will be
~ realised.. we alone have the-. polic'ies which will keep our
country grow3ing."* Polidles. which'are successful, which -will
* create new jobs.
We will reduce inflation to between six and eight per cent by
next June. we will keep industry investing. We will keep
interest rates falling. Over the next twelve months they
will fall by up to two per cent. That will save the average..
young couple buying a new.-home $ 520 a year, $ 10 a week.
We have got the real answer to unemployment. Investment 7 that
means jobs; getting interest rates down that means jobs;
restraining Government expenditure that means jobs. / Becau' 56
F77/ 295 /. Z
necause we have held back Government spending, we have been
able to cut taxes for every Australian. We have already
stopped Labor's tax ripoff by indexing taxes, and in just
seven weeks our new tax cuts start. Because we have reduced
inflation, these tax cuts will create more jobs. Because
people can spend more, our factories will have to produce
more. There will be a demand for more employees. We have
set up training and job assistance schemes which have already
helped more than 120,000 people. Npoone eligible for any of
these schemes will be turned away. We will expand the very
successful education programme for unemployed youth, and
extend the coverage of the NEAT scheme.
We will spend $ 50 million over and above existing commitments
to overhaul outmoded inner-city technical colleges. We are
tackling the problem of improving and adapting the education
of our children to meet more closely , he req tirements of the
Australian job market.
The Williams Inquiry has been appointed to examine this
fundamental issue. We will act swiftly and decisively when
the report is received.
our strategy to create jobs is working. Total employment has
risen by 180,000 since we came to office, and from next
February unemployment will start to fall and keep on falling.
We are determined to encourage Australian industry's new
found-vitality
Our predecessors'favoured buying cheap foreign products.
This Government buys Australian.
We will give export sales fresh impetus with a new five-year
export incentive scheme. We will provide special help to
Australian businesses competing for overseas projects. We
will actively promote more processing in Australia of our
basic raw materials. We will make finance more readily
available to small businessmen,
Unlike the Opposition, we are giving Australian industry,
Australian jobs and Australian workers, the protection they
need. We have increased protection for industries employing
over a quarter of a million Austra lian. men and women. Our
swift and effective. action has-meant.. the. survival.-ofzthe
apparel-, . textile._ and-_-footwear in strieS whch employ
120,000 people.
Last week, the Labor Party refused to support our action.
They turned their backs on 120,000 working Australians,
of whom = re women, and many of whom are migrants.
It iE; Labor -is the Party of unemployment.
Mr. Whitla--= fe. unemployment a deliberate, calculated part
of Governnr policy. It was Mr. Whitlam who, when he was
Prime Minister, despite the warnings of a top level report,
made his notorious, indiscriminate 25% across the board
tariff cut a cut which put tens of thousands of Australians
out of work. / In May. 1974
In May 1974, there were almost 1.4 million Australians
employed in manufacturing. By May 1975, just over one Year
later, that number had dropped by over 100,000.
O Now Mr. Whitlam wants to do it again.
The Executive Director of the Apparel Manufacturers has
said " No industry could be certain of survival if a Labor
Party came to power",
And he's right.
Labor's tariff p olicy would cause massive unemployment.
its commitment to higher taxes would reduce demand and
create further unemployment. Labor wants a ' crash' spending
programme involving $ 800 million in six months. That is an
annual rate of $ 1,600 million a year.
And Labor has made other promises worth billions of dollars
and many more they have not costed. All this would more than
double the deficit, unleash inflation once again, and increase
interest rates. This could only have one result more
unemployment.
This is not just guess work. We know from bitter experience
what Labor would do.
For the-ten years before Labor last came to office, average
unemployment was In three years, Labor increased
unemployment to 5.4% of the workforce. In one year Labor
increased unemployment by 157%_-, by almost 200,000 people.
Labor has said it would repeal our 1st February tax cuts
that are already law. ~..-/ People
People earning between $ 10,000 and $ 16,000 a year will pay
a marginal rate of tax of only 32 cents in the dollar. Under the
Hayden scales it was 45 cents. That means it will now be
worth working overtime again. These tax cuts are a significant
social reform. A quarter of a million low income earners, tens
of thousands of pensioners, widows,. and students, with taxable
incomes under $ 3,750 a year, will no longer pay any tax at all.
These are the people Labor forgot. To. pay fof abolition, Labor would
have to grab $ 850 million this year and $ 1,900 million next year
out of the hands of the working men and women of Australia.
Labor would pay these vast amounts to big and profitable comipanies.
No jobs would be created. The companies have said so.
The working men and women of Australia will not vote for a party with
that policy. Mr Whitlam's Labor Party no longer represents the
working men and women of Australia and he knows it.
Labor knows its support is eroding, that's why it has mounted
a campaign of fear in this last week of the election campaign.
The Labor Party is desperately trying to frighten Australians out
of think about the issues, by talking about division and confrontatio
by talking about suicide and crime increasing; by showing a
disgraceful advertisement on the uranium question which. shows
a photograph of an infant playing with a hand grenade.
I am certain this will offend all Australians.
Australians are coming to know the hypocrisy of La bor's uranium
policy. The fact that Mr Whitlam signed an agreement to mine
and export uranium when he was in power. Australians are comig.
to know the hypocrisy of Mr Dunstan the man the Labor Party
has put on television to oppose uranium development.
They're learning that Mr Dunstan has secretly granted exploration
rights for uranium on an Aboriginal sacred and historic area.
That he has encouraged the mining and stockpiling or uranium. at the
Roxby Downs mine; and that he had licensed a foreign company to
explore for uranium--just-30-kms.-south-and north of Adelaide.
You have probably seen Labor's commercial which shqos Mr Dunstan
diiging in the garden and talking against uranium. mOn-his recent
record, I bet I know'what he is( dggingfor ( uinium)...
H'es probably-got uranium exploration-' licence for-half of Adelaide.
SLadies and gentlemen, in every area,. the Governmenthas laid
firm foundations for national recovery. We have established a
good framework for industrial relations. We have shows that a
Government pr--zed to take a firm and fair stand can protect the
community. ke Labor, we believe that no one should be above
the law. I-_-i-al unionists have a right to be heard and a righ'
to have a say -i how their union is run. It is the responsibility
of Goverment to protect the entire community.
Our record matches our promise: secret postal ballots for
union elections are now compulsory; the Industrial Relations Burea
is now operating; unions must now tell their members how their
dues are spent; individuals no longer have to join uions
against their will. These are fair and firm laws they are
supported by responsible unionists. Given a chance, Labor
would repeal each one of these laws as soon as it could because
it is the Labor Party's official policy to put unions above the law.
We will not back away from these laws. The Government has
also made fundamental reforms in social welfare.
We have helped 300,000 poor families with 800,000 chuldren through
our family allowances. Because of our legislation, pensions are
now increased automatically to keep up with inflation.
We know our ethnic communities have made a great contribution to
Australia. Australia is proud to offer people from around the
world the opportunity to build an independent life for themselves
and their families.
In the next three years we will concentrate on overcoming the
lang' 2age barriers in our society both by expanding the teaching
of English and the teaching in our schools of ethnic languages
and cultures. Government departments will have ethnic liaison
officers. We Wi! lpovide more interpreters, translators
more migrant resources centres. The Government has decided that
the age service pension, should, and will be, paid to non-British
members of the allied forces. We have put ethnic broadcasting
on a secure long term basis. We will establish ethnic television.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Government offers Australia a return
to prosperity, a higher standard of living and continuing policies
which have provided Australians with new hope. We will press
ahead with -our programmes which are now so clearly succeeding.
In the next few years, Australia can fulfill our great promise.
Through a sense of national unity of purpose, a determination
by all Australians that we shall succeed, we can build a
better life for everyone.
As a concerned and caring community we can provide effective.
help to those disadvantaged and in need, and give them. ignity and
hope. As ipeople-conscious-oFour-responsibilities to
other nations around the world we-can play a leadini role in
developing a safer world a-less selfish world, a world that
learns to use ; ts natural resources as a force for good and not
for evil. we do all this, it is now within our grasp.
I have no' hat the Australian people are ready and willing
to play ther = art. My commitment to you tonight is that this
Gover-ment Liberal/ National Country Party Government
will lead Ats. alia to this better future.