FOR MEDIA 14 octOgER 1979
ELECTORATE TALK
The recent change of government in South Australia has set
the stage for that State to join with the rest of Australia
in the surge of investment we are now enjoying. For too long
South Australia was the poor cousin. For too long South Australia
languished behind her fellow States in investment, and thus
in job opportunities.
A century ago South Australia was a major mining State.
Today, that State contributes only about three per cent of
the nation's mineral production. Much of the blame for that
can be laid solely at the door of the former State Labor
government. South Australia suffered a decade of Labor stagnation.
South Australia now has the opportunity to be a great State again.
It can be, and it will be. South Australia indeed Australia
needs every cent of investment we can.. get, every bit of development,
every new job.
Look at the way Labor cast a shadow over the development of
the great Roxby Downs project. The meaningless gesture of
banning the mining of uranium in South * Australia achieved
nothing more than denying Australians jobs.
Immediately following the South Australian election, we moved
quickly under our foreign investment policy to allow detailed
exploration of the project. The way is now clear for the
Western Mining Corporation to press ahead confidently with the
development of this massive project for the benefit of Australia.
Jobs will be created.
Let us now look for a moment at the potential of Roxby Downs.
The Western Mining Corporation is looking at a capital investment
exceeding $ 1,000 million in what could become the greatest mining
project our nation has seen. In fact, with its known reserves
of copper, gold and uranium it could become one of the world's
great mines. It would provide between 2,000 to 3,000 jobs in
the construction stages. When developed, we would see the
employmnent of 5,00. Q on a permanient basis. Add to this the
multiplier effect. of such a huge project. With the infrastructure
involved the spin-off the total number of new jobs would
be many more thousands.
What a boost for our nation that would be.
It is not fanciful to compare Roxby Downs with Mt. Isa a flourishing
mining town of 28,000 people, serving the dynamic port of Townsville,
now one of our great growth centres.
All those jobs, all that development, simply wouldn't happen
under Labor. A Labor government in Canberra would turn back
the clock to the days when development stopped dead in its tracks.
Instead of welcoming development of Roxby Downs, instead of
welcoming the opportunities, instead of welcoming the jobs,
what does Labor do today?
Ironically, they chose Adelaide, capital city of South Australia,
as the venue for their supreme policy-making conference which
showed them up for all time as the anti-development, anti-investment
and anti-job party of Australia.
They said they would have a resource tax. This would kill off
profits and stifle enterprise and initiative. It would be a
disastrous policy . Mr Whitlam all over again.
In Adelaide, the Labor Party decided that if in government it would
refuse export approval of Australian uranium, other than uranium
mined under existing contracts from Mary Kathleen " until all the
unresolved problems of the nuclear industry have been satisfactorily
attended to".
As the Opposition's spokesman on Minerals and Energy, Mr Keating,
said this week: " Companies that invest in uranium mining in
Australia do so in the face of that policy". What Mr Keating is
saying is that Labor would kill-off Roxby Downs, it would ban
uranium exports. It would renege on existing contracts.
Australia's credibility as a reliable and stable world trader
would be shot to ribbons. We would never again be trusted around
any of the trade-negotiating tables of the world. But on top of
that, Labor's anti-development policies would deny Australians
jobs. They would destroy jobs.
They did it before, and their policies haven't changed. They haven't
learned the lesson of history. They are the discredited Whitlam
policies, dressed up under the so-called cloak of Hayden moderation.
Under our policies, Roxby Downs is just one of the many exciting
projects in the pipeline for the 1980' s. We are poised to make
the ' 80s one of the most rewarding decades in Australia's history.
We will see Australia-become one of the important-ffidd]?-ranking
powers in the world.
It won't just happen by accident. It will happen because we have
the right government policies; because our people have the
determination and the skills; because the rest of the world has
confidence in us.
We can all look forward to the future of our nation with great
and growing confidence.